THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


r  ^  /v     /      xi        /     /'  /  /  x/  n  p/  /  /  > 


.•- 


The  Last  of  His  Clan 

"MY   DIARIES:   BUNG  A    PERSONAL  NAR- 
RATIVE  OF  KVKNTS    1888-1914."     (In  Two 
Parts.)     By  WILFRID  SCAWEX  BLUNT.     Alfred  A. 
Knopf.     1921.     $12. 

Reviewed  by  HENRY  W.  NEVINSOX 
Associate  Editor  of  the  London  Nation 

FROM  time  to  time  a  peculiar  type  of  personality 
recurs  ia  the  English  people.     To  that  type  be- 
longed Byron,  Trelawney,  Landor,  Hester    Stan- 
hope, Gordon,  Richard  Burton,  and  a  few  others  per- 
haps less  known.     And   to  this  type  among  younger 
men  belongs  Col.  Lawrence,  archaeologist  and  soldier; 
among  older  men,  most  conspicuously,  Wilfrid  Scawen 
Jlunt.    It  is  a  type  made  up,  as  it  were,  of  Esau  and 
David— wild,    untamable   sons  of   the   desert,    having 
hands  against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against 
them ;  loving  freedom  for  themselves  and  others,  seek- 
ing adventure  as  other  men  seek  money  or  pleasure; 
defiant  of  God  and  of  society.    But  deeply  interwoven 
in  this  savage  nature  runs  the  golden  thread  of  beauty 
-love  of  beauty,  passion  for  great  literature,  or  great 
Often  they  have  been  scholars  or  poets  them- 
selves; always  they  have  known  what  beauty  means, 
and  have  revealed  some  aspect  of  beauty  in  their  lives, 
have  followed  war  and  the  Muses!"  said  the  old 
Greek,  and  Englishmen  of  this  type  may  say  the  same. 
Wilfrid  Blunt  is  old  now;  he  cannot  choose  but 
be  old.     And  he  is  feeble,  too,  with  age.     But  I  re- 
member the  time  when   he  stood  as  the  redoubtable 
sportsman,    best   of    riders,    best   of    "whips"    on    the 
box  of  a  four-in-hand,  best  judge  and  breeder  of  Arab 
horses,  a  masterful  master  in  Sussex,  a  typical  Eng- 
lish aristocrat  and  squire,  like  one  of  the  olden  time. 
I  remember  that;  but  the  first  time  I  saw  him,  what 
a  contradiction  it  seemed!     He  was  just  out  of  gaol! 
He  had  been  in  gaol   two  or  three  months!     What 
a  position  for  a  member  of  the  great  aristocracy,  an 
intimate  friend  of  all  the  best  society,  once  a  rising 
diplomatist  in  the  Foreign   Service,  still  the  wealthy 
owner  of  two    among  the  most  beautiful  houses    and 
estates  in  the  south  of  England,  still  young,  very  hand- 
some, in  every  way  distinguished!    Why,  then,'had  he 
been   imprisoned   in   Galway  gaol?      It  was  his  love 
of  freedom  that  sent  him  there— his  love  of  freedom 
and  his  detestation  of  an  oppressive  Government,  no 
matter  how  Liberal  it  called  itself. 

It  has  always  been  so  with  him.  An  aristocrat 
by  birth  and  temperament,  mixing  easily  with  all 
classes  except  the  vulgar,  but  naturally  feeling  most 
at  home  among  the  class  to  which  he  belonged;  loving 
''^njn^als^loving  nature,  pursuing  the  hearty  outdoor 
life  of  the  best  English  educated  families:  fond  of 
good  conversation,  fond  of  beautiful  and  intelligent 


women. 


MX  months  to  quarrel  i 
Belgium,  Ashanti,  Franc 
Germany.  This  is  a  reco: 
not  break  up  the  British  E 
I  am  glad  of  it  all,  for  t 
engine  of  evil  for  the  w< 
world — not  that  we  are  wo 
or  Americans — indeed  we 
but  we  do  it  over  a  far  wi 
I  should  be  delighted  to  see 
foreign  possessions. 

On  the  same  day  he 
woodreeve  on  his  Crabbt 
Arab  horses  were  bred,  a 
after  fifty  years  of  honest 
ning  and  carefully  hang 
creeps  in  its  petty  pace.  ; 
instance  of  indignant  pei 
1898  upon  Zola's  condem 
ment  for  bringing  forwari 

This  is  an  event  of  great 
in  France,  as  in  Germany 
supreme.  It  will  be  so  in  E 
are  over  and  then  goodby  I 
nations  of  Europe  will  only 
Thirty  Years'  War  there  mig 
but  they  are  too  cowardly  fo 

Well,   they  have  not 

have  cut  more  throats  thar 

but  we  do  not  see  more  ho; 

count.    As  to  our  loss  of 

tarism,    Blunt  was  certain 

generations  to  recover  eve 

enjoying.      We  must  alws 

writing  at  one  of  the  woi 

riods  of  our  history,  when 

African    gold    mines   deluj 

till   she  almost  sank  in   v 

It  was  the  time  when   Ki 

thor,  and  war  was  thought 

own  Englishman."     It  wa 

about  the  "White  Man's  1 

ers  of  cant  forgot  that  it  is 

carries  the  burden.     But  I 

was  too  high  bred  ever  to 

The  aristocracy  among  wh< 

beginning  to  degenerate.    1 

ing  to  the  condition  of  Ha 

Horseback  Hall.     They  ar< 

has  killed  them  or  impovei 

know  them  no  more.     On 

ture — the  ruin  of  their   be; 

estates.    When  the  dear  olc 

house,  I  find  it  less  interestii 

crat  like  Wilfrid  Blunt  is 

he  has  never  degenerated. 

** 
Politics  fill  much  of  thp 


h  China,  Turkey, 
a,  America,  and 
ice,  and  if  it  does 
j  will.  For  myself 
mpire  is  the  great 
w  existing  in  the 
French  or  Italians 
ively  destructive — 
more  successfully, 
pped  of  her  whole 

fact  that  the  old 

here   the  famous 

f  eighty-four  and 

:nt  out  that  eve- 

So   the   world 

te  only  one  more 

Vriting  early   in 

year's  imprison- 

:us  case,  he  says: 

for  it  means   that 

militarism    reigns 

before  many  years 

any  kind.     If  the 

hel"s   throats    in    a 

iope  for  the  world, 

owardly.  They 
irty  Years'  War, 
\  orld  on  that  ac- 
ler  English  mill- 
It  will  take  us 
•ty  he  was  then 
>er  that  he  was 
st  corrupted  pe- 
:ry  of  the  South 
untry  in  riches 
ry  and  comfort, 
the  popular  au- 
sport  for  "God's 

of  endless  cant 
•hile  the  preach- 

black  man  who 
•  forgot,  and  ho 
?  lure  of  money, 
ed  were  perhaps 
them  were  tend- 
oolc  i.ithn  than 
nmv.  The  war 
i.  Their  places 
;ret  their  depar- 
)-<•-  and  ancient 

sold  for  a  mad- 
ipc  of  the  aristo- 
<T.  Hut  ;it  least 


R.,  Tennessee,  <a-r:tes:  "I  am  fas- 

Jled  by  the  notices  of  'My  Diaries.' 

Wilfrid    Seamen    Blunt,    but    my 

•  impulses  are  tield  in  leash  by  iht 

normoiis  price  of  $12.    It  would  be 

>    be    at    once     disillusioned     and 

that  extent.     Could    you    be    kind 

tell  me  if  it  i-sould  be  a  friendly 

rvenings  *a-it/i  a  <uood  fire  and  a 

asket   and   a   husband  <u>ho    reads 

This  is  the  kind  of  letter  I  get  far 

in  I  print,  but  to  which  I  always 

peculiar  care.     I   print  this   one 

ut  to   any  publisher  who   may  be 

is   that  there   i«    a   large   class   of 

ing  at  a  distance  from  bookshops, 

on  disinterested   advice  and   will- 

d  money  in  considerable  amounts 

genuine    need    for    books    on    a 

assurance     that     these     are    the 

r    really    want.      A    sort    of   book 

ake  place   at  thr   local  club    or  at 

jf  some  prominent  citizen,  at  which 

live    books    loaned    by    publishers 

n  exhibition,  say,  three  days,  with 

of    sale,    and    from    which    orders 

taken,    would     be     an     experiment 

ng  in  many  a  small  place.     I  can 

H.  R.  that  "My  Diaries"  will  fi; 

an  enviable  picture  as  she  draws 

any  book  I  know.     It    is    in    two 

nes,  w>  large  and   so  packed   that 

kes  on  a  different  tone;   it  is  full 

V«  to  well  known  people   and — to 

Jvn  places,  su.h  as  the.  desert  and 

r  Blum's  life  took  him  to  strange 

actually     makes     Mrs.     Asquith 

He  has  no  opinion  of   England'^ 

:  white  man'n  burden,  and  his  at- 

'irds   the   great    war    was   one   of 

1    neutraliu" — though      apparently 

1  brickbats  harrdy — hut  that  would 

ti»e  to  any  one  who  knew  of  him. 

p  diariet  would  take  pr«try  nearly 

and  be  worth  it. 


MY 

DIARIES 
Part 
One 


BOOKS  BY  WILFRID  SCAWEN  BLUNT 
PROSE 

THE   FUTURE  OF  ISLAM   1882 
IDEAS   ABOUT   INDIA   1885 
THE   SECRET   HISTORY   SERIES 

I     THE  SECRET  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  OCCU- 
PATION OF  EGYPT    1907 
II     INDIA  UNDER  RIPON    1909 

III  GORDON  AT  KHARTOUM    1911 

IV  THE  LAND  WAR  IN  IRELAND    1912 

V  MY    DIARIES      PART   I.       [THE   SCRAMBLE   FOR 
AFRICA]    1919 

VI  MY  DIARIES    PART  II.     [THE  COALITION 
AGAINST  GERMANY]  1920 

POETR T 

LOVE   SONNETS   OF   PROTEUS   1880 

THE   WIND   AND   THE   WHIRLWIND    1883 

IN    VINCULIS   1889 

A    NEW    PILGRIMAGE   1889 

ESTHER   AND    LOVE    LYRICS   1892 

GRISELDA    1893 

SATAN    ABSOLVED    1899 

SEVEN    GOLDEN    ODES    OF   ARABIA    1903 

POETICAL  WORKS.      A  COMPLETE  EDITION   1914 


(Sccuutsi 

7867 


MY   DIARIE 

Being  a  Personal   Narrative  of  Events   1888-1914 


By 

WILFRID   SCAWEN   BLUNT 

With  a  Foreword  by  Lady  Gregory 


PART  ONE 
[1888-1900] 


NEW  YORK        ALFRED  A.  KNOPF  MCMXXII 


COPYRIGHT,  1921, 
BY  WILFRID  SCAWEN  BLUNT 

Published,  December,  19il 
Second  Printing,  March,  1912 


FEINTED   IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    O»    AMERICA 


Library 

b 

4oQ 


PUBLISHER'S  NOTE 

This  edition  of  MY  DIARIES  is  a  full  and  complete  re- 
print of  the  much  sought  after  London  edition  of  1919- 
1920.  Mr.  Blunt  has  himself  passed  the  proofs  as  well 
as  the  Foreword  by  Lady  Gregory. 

I  owe  a  special  word  of  thanks  to  my  friend,  Osmond 
Kessler  Fraenkel,  Esq.,  for  great  assistance  in  seeing  these 
volumes  through  the  press.  Mr.  Fraenkel  is  also  in  a 
large  part  responsible  for  the  indices. 

A.  A.  K. 


1222599 


A  few  Sundays  ago  I  was  staying  with  Mr.  Blunt  at  Newbuildings 
Place,  that  ancient  and  beautiful  manor  house  which  has  been  a 
best  loved  part  of  his  inheritance,  as  I  have  been  used  to  do  perhaps 
once  in  a  year  when  chance  or  business  draws  me  from  Ireland  to 
London.  We  were  out  of  doors  all  the  morning,  he  in  his  p.>ny 
chair,  in  the  beautiful  oak  woods  that  cover  some  five  hundred  of  his 
Sussex  acres.  Our  midday  meal  was  set  out  nearer  the  house  yet 
still  under  blossoming  trees.  Peacocks  came  to  be  fed  and  among 
them  a  Spanish  lamb,  black-spotted,  using  its  sprouting  horns  to 
butt  at  the  watch  dog  in  whose  companionship  it  had  been  reared. 
And  as  we  talked  "the  Squire,"  (for  so  he  is  known  to  his  people) 
told  me,  and  with  pleasure  in  the  telling,  that  these  volumes  of  his 
"Diaries,"  being  sold  out  in  England  were  now  being  printed  in 
America,  an  honour  new  to  him,  for  his  work  is  not  yet  so  widely 
known  there  as  at  home.  But  he  said,  and  he  was  a  little  troubled 
with  regard  to  this,  that  a  new  preface  had  been  asked  of  him  that 
would  give  something  more  of  a  biography,  even  of  a  confession, 
than  is  to  be  found  in  the  text  of  the  "Diaries"  and  "I  am  not  at 
present"  he  said  "in  a  mood  for  writing  this."  I  did  not  see  him 
again,  but  after  my  return  to  Ireland  not  many  days  later,  a  home- 
coming hastened  by  news  of  troublesome  events  near  by,  a  letter 
came  from  him  reminding  me  of  our  talk  and  asking  me  to  "do  him 
a  great  kindness"  and  myself  write  the  few  needed  words.  I  felt 
such  a  request  from  my  friend  of  forty  years  an  honour  and  not  to 
be  refused  if  I  could  but  accomplish  it,  but  there  is  much  to  say  in 
a  short  space  and  it  is  sometimes  harder  to  say  less  than  more. 

"  I  have  lived  my  life  in  full  "  he  said  the  other  day  and  he  bad 
written,  as  I  remembered,  in  the  preface  to  the  complete  edition  <  f 
his  verse,  "No  life  is  perfect  that  has  not  been  lived,  youth  in 
feeling,  manhood  in  battle,  old  age  in  meditation."  and  that  very 
same  day  someone  said  to  me  in  London  when  I  spoke  of  him  "  His 
life  has  been  lived  for  freedom."  That  full  life  of  his  has,  more 
happily  than  many,  found  its  record  not  only  in  public  artion  but  in 
the  intensity  of  lyrical  expression — as  an  earlier  poet  bag  ?aid 
"outward  to  man — inward  to  the  Gods."  He  tells  in  these  diaries 

vii 


viii  Preface 

in  vigorous  prose  of  the  circumstances  that  have  in  the  last  30  years 
surrounded  him,  of  talks  with  friends,  and  the  gossip  of  Parliaments, 
of  gatherings  for  shooting  or  for  tennis  or  for  the  sales  of  his  famous 
Arab  Stud.  They  were  written  in  early  mornings  not  only  where 
Eastern  travel  accustomed  him  to  rise  with  the  rising  of  the  sun 
but  through  London  seasons,  and  visits  to  great  country  houses  in 
fine  society,  for  he  was  many  sided ;  a  man  of  fashion,  rider  to  hounds 
at  home;  rider  also  on  the  camels  of  the  desert;  attache  at  the  court 
of  a  King  of  Greece,  a  Queen  of  Spain,  an  Emperor  of  the  French  at 
the  time  of  that  Emperor's  supreme  vain  glory,  translator  from  the 
Arabic;  painter,  architect  and  sculptor  (as  is  shown  in  his  greatest 
effort,  the  beautiful  monument  at  Crawley,  the  recumbent  figure  of 
his  brother);  politician  outside  Parliament;  revolutionist  and  helper 
of  revolutions. 

A  brief  summary  of  his  earlier  history,  before  I  knew  him,  has 
been  given  me  by  a  friend  of  his  and  mine: 

"The  English  books  of  reference  tell  us  that  Mr.  Wilfrid  Scawen 
Blunt  was  born  at  Crabbet  Park  in  Sussex  in  the  year  1840.  His 
father  was  a  squire  possessed  of  some  four  thousand  acres  mostly  of 
forest  land;  a  justice  of  the  peace,  a  Deputy  Lieutenant  of  that 
county,  and  master  of  the  local  foxhounds,  who  had  served  in  the 
Peninsular  campaign  and  had  carried  the  colours  of  the  Grenadier 
Guards  under  Sir  John  Moore  at  the  battle  of  Corunna  where  he  was 
wounded,  and  remained  through  life  a  follower  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  the  object  of  his  political  devotion. 

"Mr.  Blunt's  sole  hereditary  connection  with  letters,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  learn,  was  that  the  family  estates  in  Sussex  lay  closely 
adjoining  those  of  the  Shelleys  and  that  his  great  grandfather  was 
fellow  justice  of  the  peace  to  Percy  Shelley's  father  and  that  they 
sat  as  Magistrates  on  the  same  Bench  at  the  County  town  of 
Horsham,  also  that  his  father  was  a  contemporary  at  Harrow 
School  of  that  other  great  poet  Byron,  and  acted  as  "fag"  to  him 
there  according  to  English  public  school  fashion  for  a  year,  memories 
that  are  cherished  in  the  family  traditions. 

"Left  an  orphan  while  yet  a  child,  he  had  been  brought  up  a  Cath- 
olic and  had  received  his  education  under  the  Jesuits  at  Stonyhurst 
and  later  at  Oscott,  but  pursued  his  education  no  further.  He  was 
never  at  an  university,  but  at  the  early  age  of  eighteen  was  given,  by 
one  of  his  guardians  connected  with  the  Ministry  of  the  day,  a  post 
in  the  Diplomatic  Service  and  was  sent  abroad  the  same  year  as 
attache  to  the  British  Legation  at  Athens  and  afterwards  by  way  of 
Constantinople  to  Germany,  where  he  went  through  a  mental  crisis 


Preface  ix 

connected  with  the  Darwinian  discussions  of  the  day,  allusions  to 
which  will  be  found  in  the  diaries. 

"From  Frankfort  he  was  transferred  in  1863  to  Madrid  and  in  the 
following  year  to  the  Paris  Embassy,  just  then  at  the  full  height  of 
the  short  lived  glory  of  the  Second  Napoleonic  Empire.  Here  the 
romantic  follies  of  his  youth  began  and  with  them  the  first  out- 
pourings of  his  poetic  faculty  followed  by  a  diplomatic  exile  to  the 
remoter  posts  in  the  service  —  to  the  Legations  of  Portugal  and  the 
River  Plate.  On  his  return  to  Europe  he  married  Lady  Anna- 
bella  Noel,  the  only  daughter  of  William  Earl  of  Lovelace  and  of  Ada 
Byron,  that  child  of  romance  to  whom  the  poet  Byron  addressed  those 
pathetic  lines:  "Ada,  sole  daughter  of  my  house  and  heart";  and 
the  year  after  on  the  death  of  his  elder  brother  he  left  the  diplomatic 
service  and  settled  down  to  a  country  life  on  his  ancestral  acres.  There 
he  and  his  highly  gifted  wife  busied  themselves  for  some  half  dozen 
years,  she  with  painting,  he  with  sculpture,  and  in  secret  with 
those  verses  which  afterwards  were  to  become  so  celebrated  as  "The 
Sonnets  of  Proteus,"  and  both  in  the  rebuilding  of  their  family  home, 
Crabbet  Park,  a  work  for  which  they  were  their  own  sole  architects. 

"In  1875  tiring  of  too  inadventurous  a  life  at  home,  a  sudden  impulse 
started  them  on  a  series  of  romantic  horseback  journeys  in  Spain, 
Algeria  and  Asia  Minor,  and  eventually  in  that  still  wilder  wandering 
in  Mesopotamia,  Persia  and  the  as  yet  quite  unvisited  regions  of 
Central  Arabia." 

It  was  in  1881  that  my  first  meeting  with  him  and  Lady  Anne  took 
place,  at  Cairo,  when  they  were  living  in  the  garden  they  had  bought 
on  the  desert  edge  of  Heliopolis;  and  at  that  meeting  my  husband  had 
told  us  how  some  years  before  at  a  bull  fight  at  Madrid  he  had  been 
struck  by  the  extraordinary  good  looks  of  the  young  matador  awaiting 
the  rush  of  the  bull  in  the  arena  and  asking  who  he  was  heard  he  was 
an  attache  from  the  English  Embassy,  Wilfrid  Blunt.  That  fine 
poem  of  his  on  the  dying  bull  fighter  Sancho  Sanchez  shows  perhaps 
the  hidden  root  of  that  adventure: 

"Meaning  was  there  in  our  courage  and  the  calm  of  our  demeanour, 
For  there  stood  a  foe  before  us  which  had  need  of  all  our  skill, 
And  our  lives  were  as  the  programme,  and  the  world  was  our  arena, 
And  the  wicked  beast  was  death  and  the  horns  of  death  were  Hell. 

"And  the  boast  of  our  profession  was  a  bulwark  against  danger 
With  its  fearless  expectation  of  what  good  or  ill  may  come. 
For  the  very  prince  of  darkness  shall  burst  forth  on  us  no  stranger 
When  the  doors  of  death  fly  open  to  the  rolling  of  the  drum.  " 


x  Preface 

I  will  quote  again  from  the  summary:  "At  the  time  of  his  arrival 
at  Cairo  Mr.  Blunt  was  still  in  the  good  books  of  the  Foreign  Office 
and  in  personal  correspondence  with  Mr.  Gladstone  as  an  authority 
on  Oriental  matters  and  had  just  published  his  first  prose  work 
"The  Future  of  Islam."  But  overborne  by  his  strong  natural 
sympathy  for  liberty  he  espoused  the  cause  of  Egyptian  National- 
ism, and  when  the  quarrel  between  England  and  the  Egyptians 
came  to  hostilities  at  the  bombardment  of  Alexandria  he  refused  to 
abandon  the  cause  that  he  had  taken  up,  with  the  result  that  when 
after  the  defeat  of  Tel  el  Kebir  the  Egyptian  leader  Arabi  found 
himself  a  prisoner  of  war  threatened  with  death  at  the  hands  of  a 
court  martial,  he  succeeded  in  rousing  popular  feeling  in  England 
to  shame  at  their  betrayal  of  an  honourable  cause,  the  first  of  free- 
dom in  the  East,  and  secured  his  release  and  honourable  exile. 

"The  public  action  taken  by  Mr.  Blunt  in  opposition  to  the  Foreign 
Office,  his  first  appearence  in  English  political  life,  brought  him  into 
close  connection  with  the  leading  politicians  of  the  day  and  amongst 
others  Parnell  and  the  other  members  of  the  Irish  Party  and  he  joined 
the  new  group  of  Tory  Democrats  founded  by  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill  at  that  time  in  opposition  which  eventually  succeeded  in  over- 
throwing the  Government  at  the  election  of  1885.  His  fearless  action 
with  regard  to  Egypt  ended  his  friendly  relations  with  the  Foreign 
Office  and  resulted  in  his  exile  from  Egypt  and  he  was  forbidden  to 
enter  that  country  for  some  three  years ;  and  came  to  be  regarded  as 
the  'enfant  terrible'  in  politics  just  as  Samuel  Butler  was  in  art  and 
literature." 

I  wrote  to  him  a  little  while  ago  asking  if  he  had  any  letters  of  mine 
written  from  or  to  Egypt  at  the  time  of  Arabi's  rebellion  for,  I  said,  it 
seemed  to  me  I  had  made  my  education  in  politics  there.  And  he  an- 
swered "  You  talk  of  having  made  your  political  education  in  Egypt, 
and  so  too  did  I  with  you,  for  before  that  eventful  year  1882  I  had  never 
played  a  public  part  of  any  kind  or  written  so  much  as  a  letter  to  The 
Times  with  my  name  to  it  and  we  made  our  education  together  over 
it."  All  that  story  is  told  in  his  "  Secret  History  of  the  Occupation  of 
Egypt " ;  and  he  records  that  among  his  most  important  supporters 
there  were  Lord  Houghton  "  who  in  early  life  had  been  an  enthusi- 
astic advocate  of  freedom  in  the  East,  and  Sir  William  Gregory,  an  old 
follower  of  Gladstone  and  well  known  Liberal  and  who  sent  more  than 
one  powerful  letter  to  what  was  then  the  leading  journal  of  Europe 
(The  Times)  giving  the  Nationalist  side.  .  .  It  is  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that  Gregory's  letters  and  mine,  especially  his,  were  largely  the 
means  of  obtaining  a  respite  for  Egypt  from  the  dangers  that  threatened 
her."  But  after  the  war  had  been  formally  declared  and  at  London 
evening  parties  "  everyone  was  rejoicing  over  the  bombardment  of 


Preface  xi 

Alexandria  "  Wilfrid  Blunt  was  almost  alone  in  openly  taking  the  part 
of  the  Egyptians ;  though  Lord  Houghton,  while  declaring  himself  for 
victory,  characteristically  told  him  that  if  he  did  go  to  Egypt  he 
must  bring  back  Arabi  with  him  "  and  you  must  both  come  and  dine 
with  me."  When  after  Tel  el  Kebir  the  short  war  was  over,  and 
Cairo  had  fallen  and  Arabi  had  surrendered,  a  rumor  went  round  that 
he  and  his  officers,  prisoners  of  war  in  English  hands,  were  to  be  put 
to  death,  and  a  private  letter  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  confirmed  this  possi- 
bility, some  men  of  honour  and  good  feeling  held  up  their  hands  in 
horror  yet  saw  no  way  to  compel  the  Ministry  to  abide  by  justice  and 
custom  and  avoid  this  disgrace.  But  Mr.  Blunt  found  a  way  and 
within  two  or  three  days  he  had  engaged  Counsel  to  act  for  the  Egyp- 
tian rebels'  defence.  He  wrote  to  me  at  the  time,  "  I  have  taken  the 
precaution  of  sending  out  a  couple  of  lawyers  to  see  what  can  be  done. 
We  are  the  rear  guard  of  a  beaten  army  where  there  are  plenty  of  blows 
and  no  glory  to  be  won.  Egypt  may  get  a  certain  share  of  financial 
ease  but  she  will  not  get  liberty,  at  least  not  in  our  time,  and  the  blood- 
less revolution  so  nearly  brought  about  has  been  drowned  in  blood." 

When  the  expenses  of  the  defence  of  the  prisoner  began  to  be  very 
heavy  some  subscriptions  were  sent  towards  it  by,  amongst  others,  Lord 
Wentworth,  Lord  Wemyss,  Frederic  Harrison,  Admiral  Lord  Mark 
Kerr,  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  A.  W.  Kinglake,  George  Meredith, 
and  General  Gordon  (who  wrote  with  his,  "  I  suppose  Government  will 
not  pay  it.  Arabi  himself  will  repay  it  within  a  year's  time").  But 
with  a  splendid  generosity  Mr.  Blunt  took  the  whole  burden  upon  him- 
self, paying  if  I  remember  aright  a  sum  of  £3,000.  It  was  not  his  last 
service  to  Egypt,  and  that  passionate  denunciation  of  the  Imperal  Gov- 
ernment in  "The  Wind  and  the  Whirlwind,"  though  it  went  past 
the  ears  closed  to  any  but  an  official  voice  still  stands  as  an  indictment 
and  a  prophecy.  Here  are  some  of  his  lines: 

Oh  insolence  of  strength !     Oh  boast  of  wisdom ! 

Oh  poverty  in  all  things  truly  wise ! 
Thinkest  thou,  England,  God  can  be  outwitted 

For  ever  thus  by  him  who  sells  and  buys? 

Thou  sellest  the  sad  nations  to  their  ruin. 

What  hast  thou  bought  ?    The  child  within  the  womb, 
The  son  of  him  thou  slayest  to  thy  hurting, 

Shall  answer  thee  "An  Empire  for  thy  tomb." 

Thou  hast  joined  house  to  house  for  thy  perdition. 

Thou  hast  done  evil  in  the  name  of  right. 
Thou  hast  made  bitter  sweet  and  the  sweet  bitter, 

And  called  light  darkness  and  the  darkness  light. 


xii  Preface 

Thou  art  become  a  by-word  for  dissembling, 

A  beacon  to  thy  neighbors  for  all  fraud. 
Thy  deeds  of  violence  men  count  and  reckon. 

Who  takes  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword. 

The  Empire  thou  didst  build  shall  be  divided. 

Thou  shalt  be  weighed  in  thine  own  balances 
Of  usury  to  peoples  and  to  princes, 

And  be  found  wanting  by  the  world  and  these. 

Thy  Empire  shall  be  parted  and  thy  Kingdom. 

At  thy  own  doors  a  Kingdom  shall  arise, 
Where  freedom  shall  be  preached  and  the  wrong  righted 

Which  thy  unwisdom  wrought  in  days  unwise. 

Truth  yet  shall  triumph  in  a  world  of  justice. 

This  is  of  faith.     I  swear  it.     East  and  West 
The  law  of  Man's  progression  shall  accomplish 

Even  this  last  great  marvel  with  the  rest. 

Thou  wouldst  not  further  it,  Thou  canst  not  hinder. 

If  thou  shalt  learn  in  time  thou  yet  shalt  live. 
But  God  shall  ease  thy  hand  of  its  dominion, 

And  give  to  these  the  rights  thou  wouldst  not  give. 

The  nations  of  the  East  have  left  their  childhood. 

Thou  art  grown  old.     Their  manhood  is  to  come ; 
And  they  shall  carry  on  Earth's  high  tradition 

Through  the  long  ages  when  thy  lips  are  dumb. 

The  wisdom  of  the  West  is  but  a  madness, 

The  fret  of  shallow  waters  in  their  beds. 
Yours  is  the  flow,  the  fulness  of  Man's  patience, 

The  ocean  of  God's  rest  inherited. 

I  think  when  London  fashion  turned  against  him  for  his  support 
of  the  Egyptians  who  fought  for  freedom,  his  good  looks  were  a  positive 
annoyance  to  his  enemies.  All  had  not  the  good  humour  of  Lord 
Houghton  who  said  to  me  in  his  whimsical  way  "The  fellow  knows  he 
has  a  handsome  head  and  he  wants  it  to  be  seen  on  Temple  Bar."  Those 
good  looks  on  the  other  hand  and  perhaps  his  love  of  horses  softened 
the  sternness  of  magistrates  who  visited  him  according  to  their  duty 
when  he  was  picking  oakum  as  a  prisoner  in  a  cell  of  Galway  gaol.  For 
in  the  Land  League  days,  turning  from  the  East  he  had  taken  up  the 


Preface  xiii 

cause  of  "the  Westernmost  of  all  European  nations  and  the  most  Chris- 
tian," and  had  held  it  an  honour  to  be  "the  first  Englishman  put  in 
prison  for  Ireland's  sake."  He  was  condemned  to  two  months  of  that 
prison  life  for  holding  a  meeting  of  protest  "against  the  denial  of  the 
right  universally  claimed  by  our  countrymen  to  speak  where  grievances 
exist."  Lady  Anne,  devoted  and  heroic,  Byron's  granddaughter,  Ada's 
daughter,  lingered  near  the  gaol  until  work  on  his  behalf  called  her  to 
England.  He  took  his  punishment  with  a  gallant  spirit.  Bereft  of 
books  he  found  pleasure  in  watching  the  seagulls  as  they  hovered  over- 
head, and  the  jackdaws  and  sparrows  on  the  look  out  for  scraps  of 
prison  food ;  talking  of  horse  flesh  with  the  visiting  justices,  even  find- 
ing a  solace  in  the  oakum-picking  "the  unravelling  of  an  old  tarred  rope 
with  a  good  healthy  smell  "  —  (I  still  possess  a  strand  of  this  smuggled 
from  the  cell,  and  acting  as  a  marker  to  my  copy  of  his  prison  poems 
"In  Vinculis")  ;  even  hiding  a  bit  of  rope  on  Saturday  to  begile  the 
tedium  of  the  unoccupied  Sabbath;  but  finding  his  chief  hardship  in 
those  January  nights,  being  given  but  scanty  covering  as  he  lay  on  the 
plank  bed  that  he  found  harder  than  the  naked  ground  of  any  of  his 
Eastern  encampments.  But  with  a  hidden  scrap  of  pencil  he  wrote 
sonnets  on  the  blank  leaves  of  his  prayer  book,  and  some  of  these  are  a 
cry  from  one  who  feels  real  suffering: 

"God  knows,  'twas  not  with  a  fore-reasoned  plan 
I  left  the  easeful  dwellings  of  my  peace 
And  sought  this  conflict  with  ungodly  Man 
And  ceaseless  still  through  years  that  do  not  cease 
Have  warred  with  Powers  and  Principalities. 
My  natural  soul,  ere  yet  these  strifes  began, 
Was  as  a  sister,  diligent  to  please 
And  loving  all,  and  most  the  human  clan. 
God  knows  it.    And  He  knows  how  the  world's  tears 
Touched  me.    And  He  is  witness  of  my  wrath, 
How  it  was  kindled  against  murderers 
Who  slew  for  gold,  and  how  upon  their  path 
I  met  them.     Since  which  day  the  World  in  arms 
Strikes  at  my  life  with  angers  and  alarms." 

An  "enfant  terrible"  of  politics  indeed,  he  has  kept  to  the  resolve 
recorded  in  the  first  page  of  these  Diaries  of  "  pleading  the  cause  of  the 
backward  nations  of  the  world  "  in  and  out  of  season.  He  has  never 
given  up  his  right  of  protest  against  injustice  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere, 
denouncing  the  floggings  and  hangings  of  the  villagers  of  Denshawai  in 
1905 ;  calling  out  against  the  hanging  of  Dingra,  the  Hindoo  political 
assassin,  in  1909;  against  the  Italian  massacres  of  Arabs  in  Tripoli 


xiv  Preface 

in  1911 ;  against  the  hanging  of  Roger  Casement  in  1914;  and  against 
the  "  lawyers  arguments "  used  in  the  British  Cabinet  to  urge  and 
justify  the  late  war.  An  unusual  and  gallant  record  for  a  Sussex 
gentleman  of  many  acres,  of  inherited  wealth  and  ease. 

The  story  told  in  these  Diaries  from  year  to  year,  sometimes  from 
day  to  day,  the  "  humour,  the  charming  good  temper  that  flickers  into 
all  corners  of  life"  through  its  pages  makes  a  richly  woven  background, 
a  tapestry  of  rich  colour,  for  the  adventure  of  that  personal  life,  the 
"  life  of  love,  the  romance  of  travel,  the  delight  in  woods  and  fields  and 
skies,  the  pride  of  ancestry  and  race  "  ascribed  to  him  by  one  who 
knew  him;  the  many  gifts,  the  mastery  of  living,  that  seem  to  belong 
to  the  heroic  ages  of  the  world,  that  show  him  out  as  one  of  Plutarch's 
men. 

JUNE  12,  1921.  A.  GREGORY. 


FOREWORD 

In  issuing  this,  the  fifth  volume  of  my  "  Secret  History  "  series,  at 
the  present  moment,  I  feel  that,  with  much  that  is  only  too  trivial  in  the 
diary  (a  thing  not  written  for  publication)  here  are  certain  passages 
in  it  for  which  apology  is  due  from  me  for  their  too  plain  speaking  in 
what  will  be  thought  by  some  an  unpatriotic  sense.  The  fault  is  per- 
haps not  wholly  mine,  rather  the  change  which  has  been  wrought  in  the 
public  mind  and  heart  of  England  by  the  heroic  efforts  made  by  her 
sons  unselfishly  in  the  war. 

The  period  the  volume  travels  over  in  English  public  life  — 1888  to 
1900  —  was  in  truth  anything  but  a  noble  one,  and  judged  by  the  high 
standards  now  professed  in  Downing  Street  and  echoed  by  the  universal 
popular  voice,  proclaiming  international  right  and  a  respect  for  the 
weak  nations  of  the  world,  may  deserve  the  worst  that  I  have  said  of 
it,  and  yet  my  telling  be  resented  as  an  untimely  reminder  of  lapses 
the  country  would  wish  to  forget.  It  includes  the  Matabele  and  Boer 
wars,  and  the  wars  on  the  Nile,  where  England  led  the  way  in  the  white 
scramble  for  Africa.  There  is  a  special  danger  for  me  of  displeasure 
in  regard  to  Egypt,  which  forms  so  large  a  topic  in  the  text,  as  it  be- 
comes more  clear  that  among  the  many  contributory  causes  leading  to 
the  final  catastrophe  of  the  great  World  War  of  1914,  our  obstinacy  in 
retaining  Egypt,  notwithstanding  all  our  promises,  must  be  counted  as 
one  of  the  foremost.  It  will  be  reproached  to  me  that  I  have  sought 
to  excuse  Germany  by  showing  that  there  were  others  primarily  guilty 
and  not  only  the  Central  Empires.  I  regret  this  the  more  because  I 
know  how  many  of  the  noblest  there  are  amongst  us  who  are  consoling 
their  sore  hearts,  wounded  in  the  war,  with  the  thought  that  at  least 
the  quarrel  was  thrust  on  England  by  no  fault  of  hers,  and  who  cannot 
but  be  disturbed  by  my  reminder  of  the  broader  truth  which  teaches 
that  our  own  Imperial  ambitions  were  also  a  reason  of  the  quarrel. 
Yet  the  truth  of  history  needs  to  be  told,  and  not  only  in  Blue  Books, 
where  the  essential  facts  are  travestied,  but  by  individual  testimony 
such  as  mine,  recording  the  words  of  statesmen  in  out  of  office  hours, 
when  they  have  spoken  their  naked  thought  to  me  in  very  different 
language.  I  cannot  believe  but  that  it  is  a  service  rendered  to  my 
fellow  countrymen  to  do  this  at  a  moment  when  we  are  endeavouring 
to  reconstruct  our  ruined  world  on  a  basis  sounder  than  before,  to 
disabuse  them  of  an  illusion,  even  a  happy  one,  obscuring  their  clear 
vision. 

xv 


xvi  Foreword 

Nor  must  it  be  imagined  that,  because  the  period  treated  here  shows 
England  the  chief  sinner  among  the  white  Empires  in  their  dealings 
with  the  weak  nations  of  the  African  world,  my  sympathy  is  more  with 
the  others.  As  masters  of  alien  races  both  France  and  Italy,  to  say 
nothing  of  Portugal  and  Belgium,  have  shown  themselves  far  worse 
and  less  scrupulous  oppressors  than  we  have  been,  or  in  Asia  than 
Russia  was  under  the  Czars,  while,  as  for  Germany,  it  was  less  the 
will  than  the  opportunity  of  evil  that  limited  its  lawless  ventures.  I 
have  no  love  for  the  German  race  or  its  ideals,  having  an  ancient  bone 
to  pick  with  Prussia  dating  from  as  long  ago  as  the  Franco-Prussian 
War  of  1870,  when,  young  and  enthusiastic,  I  made  a  vow  of  boy- 
cotting the  whole  Teutonic  race  (a  vow  which  I  have  kept),  but  this 
does  not  blind  me  to  the  fact  that  as  active  aggressors  in  deed  as  well 
as  word,  it  was  not  at  Berlin  that  the  first  steps  were  taken  in  the  direc- 
tion of  world-wide  conquest.  The  will  was  there,  theatrically  dis- 
played at  intervals  in  Kaiser  Wilhelm's  not  quite  sane  pronouncements, 
and  to  my  knowledge  had  been  there  before  his  day;  but  Germany's 
plunder  of  the  weak  had  been  small  in  act  compared  to  ours,  or  even 
to  that  of  France,  during  the  past  half  century,  while  in  each  and  all 
of  the  great  Empires  there  had  been  the  same  ominous  growth  of 
militarism  and  contempt  for  the  old  rules  of  international  right  where 
the  defenceless  peoples  were  concerned.  The  only  difference  between 
Berlin  morality  and  ours  in  Downing  Street  had  been  that  we  had  been 
careful  to  preserve  our  outward  attitude  of  forbearance  and  respect 
for  moral  right,  while  Berlin  had  been  shameless  in  its  anti-human 
logic.  Also  that  as  an  Empire  we  were  already  sated  like  a  lion  sur- 
rounded with  the  carcasses  of  its  prey,  while  Germany  was  alert  and 
hungry.  Well  might  we  want  peace !  Almost  as  well  might  Germany 
prepare  for  war! 

These  things,  which  need  to  be  remembered,  will  be  found  more 
plainly  indicated  in  Part  II  of  the  present  issue,  which  will  be  pub- 
lished in  the  course  of  the  summer,  and  complete  my  contribution  of 
Memoires  pour  servir  a  I'histoire  de  mon  temps,  and,  as  I  think,  dis- 
charge my  true  patriotic  duty  as  a  nineteenth  century  Englishman. 

Xmas,  1918.  W.  S.  B. 

PS. —  It  has  been  suggested  to  me,  as  an  appropriate  addition  to  the 
value  of  the  present  volume,  that  I  should  place  in  the  Appendix  a 
transcript  of  a  yet  earlier  diary  kept  by  me  during  the  first  months 
of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of  1870.  There  is  so  much  in  these  that 
stands  in  close  relation  with  the  war  just  over,  that  I  have  agreed,  and 
so  I  print  them  here. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE  vii 
PART  I 

THE  SCRAMBLE  FOR  AFRICA 

CHAPTKB 

I.    A  VISIT  TO  GREECE  IN  1888  i 

II.    EGYPT  UNDER  TEWFIK,  1889  22 

III.  BRIGANDAGE  IN  EGYPT  40 

IV.  THE  YOUNG  KHEDIVE  ABBAS,  1892  TO  1893  62 
V.    THE  VEILED  PROTECTORATE  84 

VI.  CROMER'S  HEAVY  HAND  108 

VII.  A  SUMMER  IN  ENGLAND,  1894  140 
VIII.    A  VISIT  TO  TUNIS  AND  TRIPOLI  153 

IX.    POLAND  AND  ARMENIA  175 

X.    THE  ADVANCE  ON  DONGOLA  193 

XI.    THE  JAMESON  RAID  211 

XII.    SIWAH  242 

XIII.  OMDURMAN  AND  FASHODA  277 

XIV.  "SATAN  ABSOLVED" — THE  BOER  WAR  302 
XV.    LAST  YEAR  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  336 

APPENDICES 

I.    MY  PARIS  DIARY  OF  1870  381 

II.    MEMORANDUM  AS  TO  THE  EVACUATION  OF  EGYPT  406 

III.    MR.  HERBERT  SPENCER  TO  MR.  BLUNT  410 

INDEX  413 


PART  ONE 
THE  SCRAMBLE  FOR  AFRICA 


PART  I 

l888   TO    IQOO 
CHAPTER  I 

A  VISIT  TO  GREECE  IN    1 888 

The  year  1888  saw  the  close  of  my  activities  in  English  public  life. 
How  this  came  about  was  described  in  my  volume,  "  The  Land  War 
in  Ireland."  It  told  how,  having  fought  my  battle  for  Nationalism 
there  and  lost  it  (for  my  imprisonment  had  failed  to  win  me  the  seat 
in  Parliament  which  alone  would  have  justified  me  in  English  eyes  for 
the  part  I  had  played  in  the  Celtic  quarrel)  I  resolved  to  look  no  more 
to  action  at  home  but  to  seek  in  other  ways  what  I  still  felt  to  be  my 
mission  in  life,  that  of  pleading  the  cause  of  the  backward  nations  of 
the  world,  and  especially  those  of  Asia  and  Africa,  from  their  slavery 
to  Europe.  I  knew  myself  to  be  regarded  as  a  beaten  man,  and  for  the 
moment  my  depression  was  extreme. 

Socially,  as  well  as  politically,  I  needed  rehabilitation.  My  "  un- 
patriotic "  vagaries,  for  such  they  were  looked  upon,  had  estranged  me 
from  most  of  my  personal  friends,  my  blood  relations  and  those  I 
loved  best;  nor  could  I  content  myself  with  my  new  political  ac- 
quaintances or,  with  the  strong  instinct  I  had  of  the  claims  of  kinship, 
shift  my  heart  at  once  to  a  new  hold  and  break  permanently  with  the 
society  in  which  I  had  been  bred.  All  my  relations  and  nearly  all  my 
intimate  friends  were  in  the  Tory  camp,  and  I  had  no  natural  footing  in 
any  other.  With  the  exception  of  the  Carlisles  and  the  Harcourts,  I 
was  at  home  in  none  of  the  great  Whig  houses,  and  in  my  own  county 
of  Sussex  I  stood  absolutely  alone  in  my  opinions.  Nothing  can  be 
conceived  more  dispiriting  than  the  attempts  at  social  entertainment 
made  that  Spring  in  London  by  the  few  .Liberal  peers  who  had  de- 
clared for  Home  Rule,  unwilling  followers  of  Gladstone.  I  went  with 
my  wife  to  one  of  these,  at  Spencer  House,  but  we  found  ourselves 
among  strangers  and  did  not  go  to  another.  At  Crabbet  it  mattered 
less,  for  I  was  Lord  there  of  my  own  Manor,  cock  on  my  own  dunghill, 
yet  I  had  been  shocked  by  the  incongruity  of  being  met  at  my  door  on 


2  Longing  for  the  East  [1888 

my  return  from  Kilmainham  by  a  deputation  consisting  of  three  Irish 
M.P.'s  and  Langridge,  our  local  cobbler  and  only  Radical.  It  revealed 
the  full  nakedness  of  the  land  for  me  at  home,  on  any  lines  but  those 
of  silence  and  abstention.  And  thus  the  summer  passed.  I  occupied 
myself  once  more  with  my  Arab  horse  breeding,  I  wrote  verses  and 
enjoyed  my  physical  life  in  the  green  Sussex  woods  as  in  former  days, 
but  with  the  sadness  a  sense  of  failure  brings.  I  left  off  keeping  my 
journal,  so  little  there  was  of  happy  interest  to  record,  so  much  tha't 
was  unhappy.  An  unfortunate  family  quarrel  about  this  time,  in  which 
I  was  constrained,  unwillingly,  to  take  a  part,  added  to  my  bitterness  in 
regard  to  the  public  situation,  and  a  gap  of  four  months  occurs  in  the 
entries.  It  was  not  till  quite  the  end  of  the  summer  that  I  was  able 
to  rouse  myself  into  any  more  profitable  line  of  thought  than  that  of 
vain  regrets  and  hopes  made  void. 

By  the  middle  of  autumn,  however,  tired  of  inaction,  a  longing 
seized  me  once  more  to  visit  Egypt  and  those  desert  lands  in  which  so 
many  of  my  winters  had  been  spent.  With  the  Arabs  I  had  a  second 
home,  less  estranged  from  me  than  the  other,  and  I  should  find  myself, 
I  knew,  in  that  "  rut  of  centuries  "  which  is  so  soothing  to  the  Japhetic 
soul  troubled  with  Europe's  ephemeral  ills.  Thus,  on  the  9th  of 
November  my  journal  is  resumed,  and  shows  me  on  my  way  eastwards 
with  my  wife  and  my  daughter  Judith,  now  taken  for  the  first  time 
abroad  with  us,  at  Paris,  enjoying,  for  a  few  days,  something  of  my 
old  life  with  my  cousin,  Francis  Currie,  whom  I  had  not  for  some 
years  seen. 

"  loth  Nov. —  Bitters  and  I  breakfasted  together  this  morning  and 
took  one  of  our  familiar  walks  in  the  afternoon,  visiting  Richelieu's 
tomb  at  the  Sorbonne  and  the  Pantheon  and  the  Hotel  de  Cluny.  The 
tomb  is  a  fine  thing  in  the  best  style  of  French  sculpture.  We  also 
stopped  and  looked  at  the  new  monument  to  Gambetta  [by  Aube,  then 
an  unknown  name  to  me]  which  I  like  better  than  I  could  have  thought 
possible.  I't  has  good  proportion  and  a  certain  movement  and  original- 
ity which  have  merit.  We  could  not  have  produced  anything  half 
so  good  in  England.  They  are  pulling  down  the  sheds  on  the  site  of 
the  Tuileries,  leaving  the  Carousel  open  to  the  garden.  This  has  a 
poor  effect,  but  it  leaves  a  fine  opportunity  of  rebuilding  to  Boulanger, 
or  whoever  else  succeeds  to  the  French  throne. 

"  1 1  th  Nov. —  Hearing  that  Lady  C.  was  in  Paris,  I  called  on  her, 
and  through  her  persuasion  was  introduced  to  her  friend  Lacretelle, 
the  painter,  whose  brother/  a  prominent  deputy,  was  intimate  with 
Boulanger,  and  he  invited  me  to  call  upon  the  brave  general.  Lady  C. 
had  already  made  Boulanger's  acquaintance,  and  had  spcken  to%  me 
about  him  when  I  had  seen  her  in  London.  Her  description  of  him 
reminded  me  not  a  little  of  Napoleon  III,  '  very  amiable,  but  rather 


Boulanger  at  Paris  3 

dull,  not  at  all  like  a  soldier,  and  with  a  hand  the  most  disagreeable  to 
touch  of  any  she  remembered.  She  could  not  explain  in  what  the 
repulsion  consisted.'  Nevertheless,  she  seemed  impressed  with  him. 
He  is  floated  financially,  she  tells  me,  by  Mrs.  Mackay  the  American, 
and  if  war  comes,  he  may  yet  achieve  his  fortune." 

This  resulted  in  my  being  taken  (i5th  Nov.)  by  Lacretelle  to  see  the 
General  at  his  house  near  the  Barriere  de  1'Etoile.  The  moment  of 
our  visit  was  that  of  the  very  height  of  his  popularity,  when  it  was 
believed  in  Paris  that  he  was  about  to  repeat  the  adventure  of  Prince 
Louis  Napoleon  in  1851,  when  France,  tired  of  her  constitutional 
regime  and  a  Republic  which  had  brought  her  no  credit,  was  ready  for 
"  a  Saviour  of  Society,"  who  should  restore  to  her  something  of  her 
military  glory.  This  might  be  effected  either  by  a  restoration  of  the 
monarchy,  or  by  Boulanger's  proclaiming  himself  Dictator.  The  thing 
seemed  possible  enough,  especially  in  Paris,  where  the  idea  of  a  guerre 
de  revanche  against  Germany  had  still  many  adherents.  I,  as  member 
of  the  acting  Committee  of  the  Peace  and  Arbitration  Society,  was 
interested  to  find  out  how  far  the  General,  if  he  succeeded,  was  likely 
to  prove  a  serious  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  world,  and  it  was  with 
that  view  principally  that  I  hailed  the  opportunity  of  an  interview. 
Lacretelle,  the  deputy,  though  personally  friends  with  the  General,  was 
a  strict  Republican  of  the  Victor  Hugo  school,  and  opposed  to  ideas 
of  war  for  any  purpose,  and  he  had  assured  me  that  the  popular  hero 
was  in  reality  no  swashbuckler,  though  he  gave  himself  the  airs  of 
one  for  popularity's  sake  with  his  principal  supporters,  Royalists  and 
Bonapartists,  who  affected  to  quarrel  with  the  Republic  for  having 
agreed  to  a  cession  of  the  lost  provinces  when  peace  was  made  with 
Germany  in  1871.  England,  however,  was  at  that  date  regarded  in 
France  as  the  chief  enemy,  and  Alsace-Lorraine  was  already  beginning 
to  be  forgotten  in  favour  of  Egypt.  The  following  is  the  account  my 
diary  gives  of  the  visit,  but  I  wrote  a  much  fuller  and  better  one  to 
the  "  Times,"  which  was  published  in  it  a  few  days  later : 

"15^/1  Nov. —  With  Lacretelle  at  10  o'clock  to  call  on  General 
Boulanger.  He  lives  in  one  of  the  streets  beyond  the  Barriere  de 
1'Etoile,  and  we  found  the  house  crowded.  Not  only  were  the  two 
anterooms  full,  but  the  staircase  also,  men  of  every  rank  of  life,  from 
the  priest  to  the  decayed  soldier  and  the  artisan,  a  few  women,  too. 
After  waiting  nearly  an  hour,  we  were  let  in  by  special  favour,  most 
of  the  suppliants  (the  mulatto  button  boy  who  did  the  honours  of  the 
waiting  room  told  us)  having  no  chance  whatever  of  an  audience. 
The  General's  reception  room  is  on  the  second  floor,  a  singular  room, 
as  you  go  down  half-a-dozen  steps  to  the  level  of  the  floor  when  the 
door  to  it  is  opened.  It  is  a  very  large  place  with  a  single  table  at  the 
far  end  of  it  and  some  Louis  XIV  chairs.  The  General,  who  was  at 


4  A  Man  of  Peace  [1888 

the  far  table  in  a  snuff-coloured  morning  dress,  not  uniform,  came 
forward  to  receive  us  (Lacretelle  has  just  been  painting  his  portrait 
for  the  Salon)  and  gave  us  each  a  hand,  and  when  he  heard  who  I 
was,  led  me  with  some  pomp  and  made  me  sit  on  a  gigantic  Louis  XIV 
chair  beside  him.  Lacetelle  began  to  compliment  him  as  "  1'homme 
du  destin,"  a  bit  of  flattery  which  the  General  took  very  much  as  a 
matter  of  course,  saying  that  there  were  moments  when  people  were 
obliged  to  act,  and  that  the  wave  was  rising  now,  and  that  whether  he 
liked  it  or  not  it  would  carry  him  on  to  whatever  was  intended  —  just 
the  same  words  of  pleasant  fatalism  I  remember  in  Arabi's  mouth 
seven  years  ago  at  Cairo. 

"  The  General  is  a  man  of  about  fifty,  fair-haired,  turning  gray,  a 
fresh  complexion,  a  good  but  not  especially  military  figure,  a  very 
pleasant  voice,  and  a  quite  frank  manner.  He  gave  one  the  impression 
at  once  of  simplicity  and  sincerity  and  of  a  sort  of  manly  self-reliance 
which  is  doubtless  his  power.  There  was  nothing  of  the  general  de 
cafe  chantant  in  what  I  saw  of  him.  After  a  little  desultory  conversa- 
tion I  asked  him  to  allow  me  to  put  him  a  serious  question.  '  It  has 
been  much  debated,'  I  said,  '  in  our  Peace  Societies,  how  the  quarrel 
between  France  and  Germany  could  be  settled  without  war.  Is  it 
possible  to  arrange  for  the  neutralization  of  the  ceded  Provinces  ? ' 
To  this  he  replied,  that  such  a  solution  might  possibly  be  in  the  future, 
but  that  he  could  not  say  now  it  was  his  own ;  the  German  Government 
had  made  it  impossible  by  their  policy  in  Alsace-Lorraine  for  any 
inhabitant  of  the  Provinces  to  do  otherwise  than  call  himself  a  French- 
man; the  only  way  one  had  of  knowing  the  opinion  of  districts  was 
by  the  ballot,  and  the  Provinces  had  universally  elected  deputies  who 
demanded  restoration  to  France ;  while  this  was  the  case  neutralization 
was  hardly  a  practical  question;  still  he  did  not  say  it  might  not  be- 
come one.  As  for  war,  he,  Boulanger,  knew  war  too  well  to  take 
the  responsibility  of  rushing  into  it  without  absolute  necessity.  War 
is  so  largely  a  matter  of  chance,  chose  aleatoire,  that  a  man  must  be  a 
traitor  who  would  risk  the  fortunes  of  his  country  on  it ;  therefore  I 
must  not  doubt  him  when  he  told  me  he  was  a  man  of  peace.  Lacretelle 
then  explained  to  him  my  connection  with  Arabi  and  Egypt,  and  his 
manner  became  extremely  cordial,  and  he  told  me  that  he  had  English 
or  rather  Welsh  blood  in  his  veins  through  his  mother  [her  name, 
Lacretelle  told  me,  was  Griffiths]  and  begged  me  when  I  returned  to 
Paris  to  come  and  see  him  again.  I  said  I  would  do  so  and  that  I 
might  be  able  to  influence  public  opinion  in  England  somewhat  in  his 
f avqur,  at  which  he  was  much  pleased  and  we  parted  the  best  of  friends. 
Lacretelle  tells  me  that  he  has  never  heard  him  talk  so  well  or  so 
amiably  to  a  stranger,  especially  an  Englishman,  as  he  hates  the  English 
in  common  now  with  all  Frenchmen.  My  impression  of  the  General 


i888]  Louise  Michel  5 

is  that  he  is  honest,  that  he  is  able,  and  that,  the  circumstances  of 
France  being  what  they  are,  he  will  succeed." 

I  had  called  at  the  Embassy  on  arriving  in  Paris,  hoping  to  find 
Lytton,  who  had  just  been  named  Ambassador  there,  but  he  was 
unfortunately  away  delivering  his  Rectorial  Address  at  Glasgow. 
"  Bitters  tells  me  that  Lytton  is  doing  very  well  here,  having  made 
friends  with  the  Press  and  leaving  all  real  business  to  Austin  Lee." 

Another  interesting  new  acquaintance  whom  I  made  during  my  few 
days  at  Paris  was  Louise  Michel,  then  so  popular  with  the  extreme 
Socialists,  almost  as  notoriously  so  as  Boulanger  with  the  army.  This, 
too,  I  owed  to  Lacretelle  and  his  wife  and  to  a  certain  Madame  Dorrian 
(nee  Princess  Merstcherska),  who  took  me  with  her  to  call  upon 
Louise,  with  whom  she  is  great  friends  —  a  most  interesting  visit.  This 
is  the  account  of  it: 

"  I4th  Nov. —  We  drove  to  Neuilly  where  Louise  lives  in  a  miserable 
house  on  the  fifth  floor.  Her  apartment  consists  of  two  very  small 
rooms  only,  without  even  an  ante-room,  and  when  we  opened  the  door 
I  thought  we  must  have  come  to  the  wrong  place.  It  resembled  a 
concierge's  box  both  in  appearance  and  smell,  crammed  full  with  four 
people,  three  dogs,  five  cats,  a  cage  of  monkeys  and  a  parrot,  all  scream- 
ing at  the  tops  of  their  voices,  and  though  the  rest  were  silenced  the 
parrot  continued  its  shrieking  the  whole  time  we  were  there.  The 
family  party  consisted  of  Louise  and  another  woman,  a  young  man 
and  a  fourth  person  whose  sex  I  forget.  They  were  engaged  as  we 
entered  on  a  meal.  A  deal  table,  without  cloth  plates  or  utensil  of 
any  kind  but  a  bottle  of  wine  and  some  glasses,  was  covered  with  roast 
chestnuts  which  they  were  peeling  and  eating.  Louise  rose  to  receive 
us,  a  gray-haired  woman  of  about  fifty  with  a  wild  but  honest  and 
kindly  face,  dressed  in  a  ragged  gown  of  rusty  black,  guiltless  of  linen. 
Her  forehead  is  retreating,  her  features  large,  her  face  colourless,  its 
expression  that  of  a  '  believer.'  It  might  have  been  a  French  country 
priest's.  She  spoke  hurriedly,  with  an  excitement  which  was  evidently 
habitual  and  was  not  altogether  coherent.  She  seemed  not  to  hear  the 
fearful  screams  of  the  parrot  or  the  yelping  of  the  dogs,  or  perhaps 
these  excited  her,  as  noise  excites  the  hearing  of  some  deaf  people. 
The  Princess  kissed  her,  calling  her  by  her  Christian  name,  and  Louise 
seemed  pleased  to  see  her.  When  Louise  was  in  prison  the  Princess 
used  to  visit  and  read  to  her.  She  tells  me  Louise  is  the  best  of 
women,  giving  away  everything  she  possesses  to  the  poor,  and  serving 
as  midwife  to  the  women  of  her  quarter.  She  is  certainly  not  a  prophet 
of  the  sort  that  goes  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen.  The  Princess 
explained  who  I  was  and  how  I,  too,  had  been  in  prison  in  Ireland, 
and  Louise  began  to  talk  about  the  prospects  of  Socialism.  She  said 
a  revolution  was  certain  and  near  in  Germany,  and  next  year  would 


6  Prospects  of  Socialism  [1888 

see  one  too  at  Paris.  She  was  under  the  impression  that  England  was 
mined  with  Socialism  and  when  I  told  her  Row  little  that  was  true  was 
visibly  distressed.  She  then  read  us  one  of  her  poems  and  tore  out 
of  a  book  and  gave  me  the  manuscript  of  one  beginning  '  Nul  souffle 
humain  ne  se  trouve  sur  ces  pages,'  and  invited  us  to  go  with  her  to  a 
meeting  to  take  place  that  evening  at  Belleville,  which  we  promised 
to  do,  but  later  I  made  the  Princess  explain  to  her  that  it  was  impos- 
sible I  should  really  go,  as  I  have  no  mind  to  be  mixed  up  in  a  free 
fight,  or  to  be  arrested  by  the  Paris  police.  But  it  was  difficult  to  make 
her  understand.  She  imagined  that  as  I  had  been  in  prison  I  must 
necessarily  be  ready  for  everything.  '  Why  should  he  hesitate/  she 
said.  '  There  will  be  no  danger,  we  shall  all  have  revolvers.'  I  like 
the  woman,  as  she  is  evidently  honest  and  of  an  unselfish  kindly  heart." 
This  is  the  programme  she  gave  me  of  the  meeting: 

Grand  Meeting  Internationale 
a  1'occasion  de  1'anniversaire  de  1'execution  des  anarchistes  de  Chicago. 

Ordre  du  Jour. 

Primo  Les  Crimes  de  la  Bourgeoisie  &c.  &c. 

Avec  Le  Concours  d'Orateurs  Socialistes  Revolutionnaires. 

Et  de  la  Citoyenne 

Louise  Michel. 

Here  is  also  the  full  text  of  her  verse : 

BOUCHE  CLOSE 

Nul  souffle  humain  n'est  sur  ces  pages, 

Rien  que  celui  des  elements, 

Le  cyclone  hurlant  sur  les  plages, 

Les  legendes  des  oceans, 

Les  sapins  verts  sous  les  nuees 

Tordant  les  branches  remuees 

Comme  les  harpes  dans  les  vents. 

Sous  les  coraux  ou  sous  les  sables 

La  nature  parfois  ouvrant 

Dans  les  tourmentes  formidables 

Un  cercueil,  ville  ou  continent, 

Et  1'etre  ayant  la  bouche  close, 

Feuille  de  chene  ou  lien  de  rose 

Tombant  au  gre  de  1'ouragan. 

LOUISE  MICHEL. 
14  Novembre  '88. 

Souvenir  a  M.  Wilfrid  Blunt. 

From  Paris  we  travelled  on  by  Marseilles  to  Greece,  where  my  wife 
had  a  family  interest  through  her  grandfather  Lord  Byron's  death 
there  in  1827 ;  how  glorious  in  those  romantic  days !  how  disappointing 


i888]  Athens  Revisited  7 

in  its  results  to-day!  We  had  interests,  too,  in  a  long  promised  visit 
to  her  relations  the  Noels  in  Eubaea,  and  I  was  curious  to  see  the 
changes  which  should  have  come  about  in  the  thirty  years  which  had 
elapsed  since  I  first  knew  Athens  as  a  member  of  the  English  Legation 
in  the  days  of  King  Otho. 

"  2Oth  Nov. —  We  arrived  by  night  at  the  Piraeus  and  landed  in  the 
early  morning,  Frank  Noel  having  come  from  Achmetaga  to  meet  us. 
It  is  thirty  years  almost  to  a  month  since  I  first  drove  up  the  road  to 
Athens,  and  I  find  little  change.  The  suburbs  have  extended  some- 
what, and  the  olive  groves  have  shrunk,  and  the  hills  are  even  barer 
than  before,  but  nothing  marks  the  progress  of  the  age  unless  it  be  the 
overthrow  of  the  fine  old  Venetian  walls  of  the  Acropolis.  I  regret 
these  as  much  as  if  they  had  pulled  down  the  Parthenon  itself.  I 
wandered  in  the  town  for  a  couple  of  hours,  looking  for  houses  I  used 
to  frequent,  and  for  friends  I  used  to  know,  but  all  of  these  last  were 
gone.  Our  diplomatic  set  at  Athens  in  1859  was  certainly  a  dis- 
tinguished one.  At  the  Russian  Legation  we  had  Ozeroff  for  Minister 
with  Staal  for  First  Secretary,  now  Ambassador  in  London,  and  Neli- 
doff  for  attache,  now  Ambassador  at  Constantinople.  Haymerle,  after- 
wards Prime  Minister  at  Vienna,  was  Austrian  Secretary.  At  our  own 
Legation  we  had  that  good  Irishman,  Sir  Thomas  Wyse,  with  William 
Eliot,  aftenvards  Lord  St.  Germans,  for  First  Secretary.  Drummond, 
Digby,  and  myself  attaches.  I  was  the  youngest  of  all  the  Corps 
diplomatique,  only  eighteen  years  old,  and  a  favourite  on  account  of  my 
youth.  The  Dufferins  were  spending  the  winter  there  of  '59-60,  he 
little  over  thirty,  his  mother,  with  whom  he  had  been  travelling  in 
Egypt,  the  most  delightful  of  women.  We  used  all  to  ride  out,  a 
merry  party,  twice  a  week,  following  a  paper  chase,  of  which  I  was 
generally  the  leader  on  an  old  white  horse,  which,  in  memory  of 
Shelley's  lines,  I  called  Apocalypse."  x 

We  used  to  gallop  through  the  olive  groves,  armed  with  revolvers, 
as  robbers  were  still  common  in  the  mountains  round,  just  as  described 
by  Edmond  About  in  his  "  Roi  des  Montagnes  "  and  "  La  Grece  Con- 
temporaine,"  while  one  met  retired  bandit  chiefs  in  the  best  Athens 
society.  King  Otho  wore  the  Albanian  fustanelle,  and  that  and  the 
costume  of  the  Islands,  with  its  immense  balloon-like  calico  nether  gar- 
ments and  red  cap,  were  the  common  dress  of  the  young  Greek  bloods. 
The  king's  footmen  are  the  only  wearers  of  the  fustanelle  to-day. 

On  the  22nd  we  paid  our  visit  to  Achmetaga,  for  me  a  romantic 
spot,  for  I  had  spent  some  weeks  in  Eubaea  in  1860  in  merry  company 

1  l^ext  came  Anarchy,  he  rode 
On  a  white  horse  splashed  with  blood; 
He  was  pale  even  to  the  lips, 
Like  Death  in  the  Apocalypse. 


8  Greek  Conditions  [1888 

in  Frank  Noel's  father's  time.  Edward  Noel  had  come  to  Greece  soon 
after  the  War  of  Independence  in  the  year  1830,  and  had  purchased  a 
good  many  thousand  acres  in  the  island,  mostly  mountain  and  forest 
land,  of  a  Turkish  Aga,  who  was  leaving  the  country  on  Eubaea  being 
made  over  to  Greece.  He  had  paid  only  £2,000  for  the  whole,  and  it 
must  be  now  worth,  with  its  magnesia  mines,  ten  times  that  price. 
The  value  of  land  (Frank  Noel  tells  me)  is  still  rising,  and  agricultural 
Greece  is  prospering.  The  peasants  are  everywhere  purchasing  their 
holdings.  They  have  few  debts  and  are  saving  money.  This  is  due 
in  part  to  the  general  advance  of  the  country,  in  part  to  the  abolition  of 
the  land  tithe  for  which  a  tax  on  yoke  oxen  has  been  substituted.  The 
peasantry  round  here  are  an  excellent  race,  sober,  hard-working,  cheer- 
ful, with  many  pristine  virtues.  Such  is  Frank  Noel's  testimony. 
Eubaea,  unlike  the  rest  of  Greece,  is  well  wooded  with  pines  on  the 
hillsides,  and  plane  trees  by  the  river  banks.  "  I  measured  the  largest 
of  these  last  while  I  was  there  and  found  it  53  feet  in  girth,  with  a 
circumference  round  the  extreme  circuit  of  its  boughs  of  170  yards, 
the  finest  single  tree  I  ever  saw,  as  it  is  perfect  without  break  or  blemish 
more  than  a  few  bare  twigs  on  the  extreme  summit."  Returning  by 
road  to  Athens  on  2nd  December  we  slept  a  night  at  Chalcis  and  another 
at  Thebes.  The  journey  was  made  in  lovely  weather  and  along  a 
carriageable  road.  At  Chalcis  they  were  talking  of  widening  the 
channel  between  the  island  and  the  main  land,  and  of  making  of  it  a 
large  naval  station  for  warlike  purposes.  To  do  it  they  will  destroy 
the  old  Venetian  tower  which  is  now  a  chief  ornament.  We  heard  the 
details  of  this  plan  from  Admiral  Mansell,  a  fossilized  English  naval 
officer  who  has  inhabited  Chalcis  for  the  last  twenty-five  years.  Both 
there  and  at  Thebes  we  were  entertained  by  Greek  friends  of  the 
Noels. 

During  the  following  days  at  Athens  we  enjoyed  something  of  the 
society  of  Edmund  Monson,  our  Minister  there,  at  the  Legation,  after- 
wards Ambassador  at  Paris,  and  of  Rennell  Rodd,  afterwards  Am- 
bassador at  Rome,  the  latter  a  budding  diplomatist  with  a  small  talent 
for  verse,  but  no  great  originality,  as  to  whom  I  shall  have  more  to 
say  in  the  course  of  this  volume.  All  that  I  need  quote  from  my 
journal  is  that  on  the  3rd  December  I  had  an  hour's  interesting  talk 
with  the  then  Prime  Minister,  Tricoupi,  on  Greek  politics,  and  the 
ambitions  developed  later  in  the  direction  of  territorial  expansion  at 
the  expense  of  Turkey. 

"  yd  Dec. —  Tricoupi  is  a  hard-headed  man  without  any  special 
graces  of  manner,  but  he  talks  straightforwardly  and  to  the  point.  We 
discussed  finance,  agriculture,  road  making,  free  trade,  peasant  pro- 
prietorship, debts  public  and  private,  the  shipping  trade,  the  Corinth 
Canal,  and,  lastly,  foreign  politics  and  Greece's  prospects  in  the  Ot- 


1888]  Tricoupi  9 

toman  inheritance.  On  this  last  point  he  said  that  it  was  impossible 
for  any  Greek  politician  not  to  look  to  an  extension  of  territory,  and 
that  if  Greece  did  not  go  forwards  she  would  go  back  and  lose  her 
independence  at  the  hands  of  either  Austria  or  Russia.  They  were 
quite  content  to  let  things  alone  as  long  as  the  Ottoman  Empire  sur- 
vived, but  they  must  prepare  for  the  future.  The  Turks  were  no 
longer  an  enemy,  but  the  others  were.  I  asked  him  where  he  would 
draw  the  line  of  Greek  claims  northwards,  and  he  said  they  could  no 
longer  claim  the  line  of  the  Balkans,  but  in  Macedonia  would  ask  for 
a  boundary  as  far  north  as  Seres,  beyond  Salonika,  and  in  Thrace  as 
far  as  Adrianople.  The  exact  limit,  however,  could  hardly,  he  thought, 
be  settled  without  a  war  with  the  Bulgarians.  Then  the  conqueror 
would  fix  his  own  limit. 

"  I  asked  him  about  Albania.  He  said  that  Southern  Albania,  which 
was  Christian,  would  revert  to  Greece,  but  Mohammedan  Albania,  on 
the  extinction  of  the  Sultan's  power,  would  find  itself  isolated  and 
might  accept  a  personal  union  with  Greece  under  the  crown,  after  the 
model  of  Hungary  with  Austria.  I  told  him  I  doubted  the  possibility 
of  this.  Otherwise  I  agreed  with  him  in  his  view  that  it  was  necessary 
Greece  should  put  forward  her  claims  or  prepare  to  put  them  forward. 
Also  I  am  of  opinion  that  if  England  is  to  have  a  policy  of  the  future 
it  should  be  to  help  Greece  rather  than  Bulgaria.  Greece  would  be 
always  under  the  influence  of  pressure  from  a  naval  power  in  the  Med- 
iterranean, whereas  Bulgaria  must  remain  under  pressure  of  the  Con- 
tinental powers. 

"  With  regard  to  Greek  progress  there  is  no  doubt  things  are  im- 
proving, though  slowly.  The  revenue  has  tripled  since  1858,  when  the 
financial  Commission  sat,  and  this  without  oppressing  the  peasantry. 
On  the  contrary,  Tricoupi  has  lately  abolished  the  land  tax,  a  really 
great  measure,  and  the  peasants,  in  spite  of  recent  bad  harvests,  have 
money  to  buy  their  holdings  whenever  they  are  not  already  the  owners. 
He  has  had  the  sense  to  put  heavy  duties  on  manufactured  imports; 
and  he  gives  no  facilities  to  the  peasantry  for  borrowing.  The  country 
is  certainly  improving.  Only  the  rascality  of  the  officials  remains  un- 
changed. Tricoupi  was  silent  on  this  head,  though  he  hinted  that  all 
was  not  quite  satisfactory.  Noel  tells  me  the  Constitution  is  worked 
by  a  vast  system  of  jobbery.  If  so,  i't  differs  little  from  other  Constitu- 
tions, notably  those  of  France  and  Italy.  On  the  whole,  I  find  Tricoupi 
a  superior  man.  All  give  him  a  perfectly  clean  character. 

"  ^th  Dec. —  To  Corinth  alone,  to  see  the  Canal.  Good  luck  took  me 
in  the  train  with  Mme.  Tiirr  whom  I  had  known  an  extraordinarily 
pretty  woman  twenty-two  years  ago,  when  I  was  staying  on  Lago 
Maggiore  with  the  Usedoms  at  the  Prussian  Legation  in  Italy.  Tiirr 
was  at  that  time  negotiating  co-operation  between  Bismarck  and  the 


io  Mycenae  [1888 

Hungarians,  or  had  been  doing  so,  but  Bismarck,  Mme.  Tiirr  tells  me, 
threw  them  over.  Now  Tiirr  is  President  of  the  Corinth  Canal  Com- 
pany, and  his  wife,  a  fat  good-natured  woman,  lives  at  Kallimaki  on 
the  Isthmus.  She  was  daughter  of  Mme.  Bonaparte  Wyse,  wife  of 
my  old  chief  at  Athens  whom  she  calls  her  father,  but  old  Sir  Thomas 
always  repudiated  the  parentage  of  her  and  her  brother,  who  were  born 
after  his  separation  from  his  Bonaparte  wife.  With  her,  in  widow's 
weeds  and  looking  the  picture  of  woe,  was  a  little  Greek  lady,  Mme. 

P ,  and  we  three  are  now  in  the  Hotel  at  Isthmia,  the  General 

being  away  at  Paris,  and  are  having  a  very  amusing  time,  Madame  P. 
having  recovered  her  spirits,  and  giving  us  her  ideas  about  Socialism, 
Eastern  politics,  and  Zola's  novels.  She  was  a  Greek,  born  at  Alex- 
andria, but  has  lived  most  of  her  life  at  Paris.  I  was  sent  with  an 
employe  to  see  the  Canal  works.  They  are  monumental. 

"  $th  Dec. —  On  to  Nauplia,  having  spent  twenty-four  hours  very 
agreeably  with  these  two  women.  Madame  P.  has  given  me  a  deal  of 
political  information.  She  says  every  serious  person  in  Greece  has 
been  obliged  to  abandon  the  grande  idee  (that  of  inheriting  Constan- 
tinople from  the  Turks).  She  herself  does  not  think  Salonika  can 
be  saved  from  Austria,  which  is  making  a  successful  propaganda  there 
with  the  Jews  and  other  non-Hellenic  inhabitants.  The  Bulgarians 
must  eventually  join  Russia,  and  the  Servians  too,  seeing  that  they  are 
Slavs.  The  Roumanians  will  not  do  so  willingly,  but  the  two  great 
Empires  will  divide  the  spoils.  The  Albanians  will  be  merged  either 
in  Greece  or  elsewhere  and  lose  their  nationality. 

"  6th  Dec. —  At  Nauplia  I  find  nothing  changed  since  I  was  last 
here,  not  twenty  new  houses  built.  The  plain,  however,  which  is  the 
richest  in  Greece,  has  become  wonderfully  well  cultivated.  I  drove 
this  morning  early  to  Mycenae  to  see  how  much  of  the  ruins  Schleimann 
had  left.  He  has  made  a  sad  hash  of  the  town  with  his  excavations, 
but  the  Gate  of  Lions  and  the  Treasury  still  stand  (with  Agamemnon's 
coat  of  arms  over  the  entrance).  What  was  most  interesting,  however, 
in  the  place  is  gone,  the  ancient  ruins  virgin  of  all  meddling  for  three 
thousand  years.  Back  to  Athens  by  train  in  the  evening.  The  last 
time  I  was  here  we  were  travelling  on  horseback,  there  being  no  roads 
in  the  Morea  except  the  mountain  mule  tracks." 

This  is  all  that  is  worth  recording  of  our  visit  to  Greece.  On  8th 
December  we  went  on  by  sea  to  Alexandria,  travelling  in  company  with 
Prince  Osman  Pasha  on  his  way  back  from  Constantinople,  where  he 
had  been  with  his  uncle  the  ex-Khedive  Ismail,  now  practically  a  pris- 
oner in  his  own  palace  on  the  Bosporus.  "  He  gave  me  a  deal  of 
information  about  Constantinople  affairs.  There  is  much  sympathy 
there  for  the  Mahdists,  the  Sultan  having  refused  to  take  part  against 
them  at  Suakim.  It  is  not  believed  now  that  the  English  occupation  of 


i888]  Egyptian  Politics  II 

Egypt  will  be  permanent.  Osman  Pasha  is  a  most  intelligent  good 
fellow,  better  worthy  of  his  Khedivial  rank  than  the  rest  of  his  race. 
He  narrated  to  me  amongst  other  things  his  experience  in  educating 
his  daughters,  which  has  only  resulted  in  making  them  unhappy.  It 
was  impossible,  he  said,  to  find  them  educated  husbands ;  nearly  every- 
body now  at  Constantinople  has  abandoned  the  practice  of  polygamy, 
only  half-a-dozen  among  the  men  of  rank  he  knew  having  more  than 
one  wife.  He  named  the  Grand  Vizier,  Kiamil  Pasha,  as  one  of  the 
few  who  continued  it ;  the  Sultan  is  of  course  an  exception,  but  he  does 
what  no  other  Sultan  has  done  for  generations;  when  his  women  are 
with  child  he  marries  them.  Among  the  common  people  of  the  Turks 
all  are  monogamists.  This  may  be  in  part  from  poverty." 

During  my  stay  that  winter  in  Egypt  I  was  obliged  to  be  very  careful 
how  I  meddled  with  politics,  even  in  conversation,  for,  though  Lord 
Salisbury  had  given  me  leave  to  return  there  notwithstanding  Sir 
Evelyn  Baring's  unwillingness,  I  was  under  a  certain  obligation  to 
avoid  any  kind  of  publicity  in  my  sympathy  with  the  National  cause. 
I  did  not  therefore  remain  more  than  a  few  days  at  Cairo  on  arrival, 
but  went  on  to  my  country  place  at  Sheykh  Obeyd,  ten  miles  outside 
the  town,  where  I  got  the  little  garden  house  ready  for  my  wife  and 
daughter  to  inhabit,  a  beautiful  retired  place  on  the  desert  edge  far 
from  European  intrusion,  standing  on  the  old  pilgrim  camel-track  where 
it  branches  off  to  Syria,  and  little  frequented  except  by  the  Arab  horse 
merchants,  who  bring  their  horses  for  sale  each  spring  to  Cairo.  There 
we  lived  in  seclusion  and  very  happily  for  the  three  winter  months, 
building  and  enlarging  the  house  and  recovering  the  garden  from  the 
neglected  state  into  which  it  had  fallen  through  the  roguery  of  those 
left  in  charge.  These,  getting  news  of  my  imprisonment  in  Ireland, 
had  imagined  that  my  career  in  life  was  over  and  that  they  might 
treat  the  garden  as  their  own,  economising  the  cost  of  its  watering  and 
using  it  as  a  run  for  their  cattle.  It  was  a  labour  of  love  for  me 
restoring  its  prosperity  and  arranging  for  its  future  better  management. 
It  was  only  little  by  little  that  my  peasant  neighbours  came  to  pay  me 
their  polite  visits  of  congratulation,  and  then  I  found  that  there  was 
much  hidden  sympathy  with  me  among  them,  repressed  only  through 
fear  of  the  government,  to  which  they  knew  I  had  been  opposed.  My 
journal,  however,  of  that  winter  contains  little  in  it  that  is  politically 
worth  transcribing.  It  is  a  record  of  conversations  with  my  peasant 
neighbours  and,  as  they  began  to  hear  of  my  arrival,  with  the  obscurer 
members  of  the  old  National  Party,  which  still  looked  to  the  possibility 
of  their  old  chief  Arabi's  recall  to  Egypt,  and  who  came  furtively  to 
see  me  under  the  guidance  of  Arabi's  old  body  servant,  Mohammed 
Ahmed,  the  same  who  had  faithfully  preserved  and  delivered  to  those 
who  were  defending  him  at  his  trial  his  master's  political  papers  and 


12  Egyptian  Situation  [1888 

so  saved  his  life.  (See  "Secret  History  of  English  Occupation  of 
Egypt.")  He  had  been  the  first  to  come  to  me  now,  and  finding  him 
out  of  employment  I  had  put  my  garden  under  his  charge,  a  fortunate 
inspiration,  for  he  was  a  man  of  integrity  and  energy  and  speedily 
acquired  great  influence  in  the  neighbourhood  and  so  restored  to  work- 
ing order  the  lands  entrusted  to  him.  To  these  Arabist  visitors  from 
Cairo  were  gradually  added  other  sources  of  native  information,  the 
most  important  of  whom  were  my  old  friends  Aarif  Bey  and  Mohammed 
Moelhi,  nephew  of  my  other  friend  Ibrahim  Moelhi,  both  of  whom 
were  now  much  in  the  confidence  of  the  Ottoman  High  Commissioner 
at  Cairo,  Mukhtar  Pasha  Gazi.  We  saw,  too,  something  of  Osman 
Pasha  and  his  sister,  Princess  Nazli,  both  of  them  persons  of  the  high- 
est intelligence  and  knowledge  of  affairs,  while  from  the  Greeks  we 
obtained  much  secondhand  information  of  their  view  of  things  through 
Frank  Noel,  who  had  came  on  to  Egypt  with  us.  Nor  were  we  wholly 
cut  off  from  the  English  official  world.  We  did  not  think  it  necessary 
to  call  on  Baring,  but  I  found  my  connection,  Colonel  Charles  Wynd- 
ham,  in  command  of  a  regiment  of  the  army  of  occupation,  and  Anne 
her  cousin  Hugh  Locke  King.  From  all  these  sources,  though  I 
hardly  stirred  from  the  solitude  of  my  country  retreat  during  the 
winter,  I  was  able  to  gather  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  situation  to 
be  able  to  piece  it  together  now  for  the  purposes  of  the  present  narra- 
tive. The  political  situation  in  Egypt  at  the  time,  as  I  came  to  under 
stand  it  during  the  four  months  that  I  was  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  in  the 
winter  of  '88-'89,  was  briefly  as  follows : 

The  failure  of  the  Drummond  Wolff  Convention  at  the  last  moment, 
after  it  had  been  already  agreed  to  by  its  negotiators,  through  the  re- 
fusal of  the  Sultan  under  French  and  Russian  pressure  to  ratify  their 
signatures,  had  left  affairs  in  Egypt  diplomatically  "  in  the  air."  Not 
only  had  further  negotiations  for  evacuating  the  English  garrison  been 
brought  to  a  standstill,  but  every  section  of  native  opinion  had  been 
checked  and  disorganized.  Instead  of  a  new  beginning  having  been 
frankly  attempted  on  lines  preparatory  to  Egypt's  restoration  to  self- 
government,  all  had  been  left  in  precisely  the  same  confusion  from 
which  the  Convention  had  sought  to  rescue  it.  The  Khedive  Tewfik 
was  still  occupant  of  the  Vice-regal  throne,  but  commanding  no  respect 
in  the  country,  and  dependent  for  his  maintenance  on  English  support 
which  might  at  any  moment  be  withdrawn,  leaving  him  to  deal  as  he 
could  with  the  Soudanese  menace  threatening  his  frontier  at  Wadi 
Haifa.  Weak  and  discredited  he  was,  without  personal  authority, 
and  he  enjoyed  less  consideration  than  Mukhtar  the  Sultan's  Commis- 
sioner. Baring,  in  whom  all  real  power  was  vested  at  Cairo,  was  for 
the  moment  without  settled  policy  beyond  that  of  waiting  events,  a  kind 
of  marking  time  with  no  definite  instruction  as  to  the  future  of  Eng- 


i888]  Events  in  Arabia  13 

land's  connection  with  the  Nile  Valley,  except  that  Lord  Salisbury, 
feeling  that  he  had  done  what  honour  required  in  fulfilment  of  English 
promises  of  evacuation,  was  resolved  now  to  leave  things  where  they 
were,  including  the  garrison  of  occupation. 

As  to  the  National  Party,  whether  represented  by  the  former  Arab- 
ists  or  by  any  other  group,  their  condition  was  one  of  patriotic  torpor ; 
as  a  party  they  had  ceased  to  exist,  being  without  leaders  and  without 
organization.  They  were  disappointed  in  the  hopes  raised  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Wolff  mission  that  Tewfik  would  be  replaced  as 
Khedive  by  Prince  Halim,  or  some  other  member  of  the  Khedivial 
family  unconnected  with  the  misfortunes  of  1882,  who  should  restore 
their  lost  constitution  of  that  year,  and  make  good  Lord  Dufferin's 
promises.  In  default  of  these  and  of  Arabi's  recall,  impossible  under 
Tewfik,  what  poor  hopes  they  had  turned  mostly  towards  the  Sultan. 
But  undoubtedly  the  popular  man  among  the  Egyptian  fellahin  that 
winter  was  the  Mahdi,  or  rather  his  successor  the  Khalifa  Abdallah  and 
his  fighting  lieutenant,  Osman  Digna,  who  carried  on  a  perpetual  guerilla 
warfare  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Suakim.  The  popular  imagination 
amongst  the  fellahin  credited  these  with  heroic  qualities,  and  it  was 
confidently  believed  that  the  Dervish  forces  would  before  long  overrun 
Upper  Egypt,  and  that  they  were  already  driving  the  Belgian  Congo 
Company  out  of  their  territory  in  Central  Africa,  that  they  would  rid 
Senegal  of  the  French,  and,  as  the  issue  of  a  holy  war  against  all 
infidel  intruders,  that  they  would  even  reconquer  the  northern  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean.  News  came  while  I  was  there  that  Emin 
Pasha,  to  rescue  whom  Stanley  had  been  sent  by  King  Leopold  on  his 
filibustering  expedition  to  the  Nile  sources,  had  made  his  submission 
to  the  Mahdists  and  that  Stanley  himself  had  been  slain.  From  the 
Eastern  desert,  too,  news  reached  me  through  the  Bedouins  of  an  in- 
teresting kind.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  my  former  friend  Mohammed 
Ibn  Rashid,  taking  advantage  of  a  quarrel  between  the  two  sons  of 
Saoud  Ibn  Saoud  with  their  uncle  Abdallah,  had  marched  with  an  army 
to  Riad  and  made  himself  master  of  the  whole  of  Nejd,  an  event  of 
high  importance  in  Peninsula  Arabia.  I  listened  to  these  stories  and 
found  my  interest  in  the  East  once  more  supreme  over  the  petty  hopes 
and  fears  of  Western  politics,  and  recovered  in  this  way  and  in  the 
routine  of  my  daily  life  in  my  garden,  the  peace  of  mind  I  had  left 
behind  me  on  leaving  England.  I  find  the  following  description  in  my 
diary  of  my  life  at  Sheykh  Obeyd. 

"  yd  Jan.  1889. —  I  left  Cairo  on  the  27th,  escaping  like  a  bird  out 
of  the  hand  of  the  fowler  and  am  established  here  at  Sheykh  Obeyd. 
It  has  been  a  blessed  change,  and  though  I  have  been  here  all  these  days 
alone,  I  have  not  for  a  moment  felt  otherwise  than  happy.  I  have  been 
getting  the  place  ready  for  habitation  by  the  others,  and  it  is  quite  com- 


14  Home  Life  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  [1889 

fortable  already  in  an  Oriental  way.  The  house  is  merely  the  old 
gardener's  house  with  two  rooms  added,  four  in  all,  and  an  open 
salamlik,  which  I  use  as  sitting  room.  I  have  had  the  floors  covered 
with  two  inches  of  clean  white  sand  after  the  Nejd  fashion,  and  I 
spread  my  carpet  over  it  and  sit  there.  For  more  furniture  I  have  had 
in  a  man  from  the  village  to  make  bedsteads,  divans,  and  seats  (gufass) 
which  he  does  out  of  our  own  palm  branches  newly  cut  at  the  rate  of 
four  shillings,  two  shillings,  and  seven  pence  halfpenny  a  piece.  The 
village  carpenter  has  put  up  a  few  screens  for  more  privacy,  and  the 
whole  furnishing  for  the  family  will  cost  about  two  pounds.  My  room 
is  like  a  lantern  with  windows  facing  East,  North,  and  West,  and  from 
my  bed  I  can  see  the  first  glimmer  of  the  false  dawn,  which  makes  the 
owls  hoot  and  the  jackals  cry.  Then,  with  the  real  dawn,  crows  begin 
to  pass  overhead,  and  I  get  up  and  go  outside  the  garden  wall  where 
I  sit  at  the  desert's  edge  and  wait  for  the  sunrise.  At  this  hour  one 
sees  all  the  wild  life  of  the  place,  foxes,  ichneumons  (nints),  jackals, 
and  birds  in  great  variety,  kites,  kestrels,  doves,  and  occasionally  a 
woodcock  at  flight  from  the  marshes  to  the  garden  where  he  would 
spend  the  day.  There  are  night  ravens,  too,  which  have  their  home 
in  the  lebbek  trees  next  the  house,  and  now  in  winter  time  a  flock  of 
rooks  with  their  attendant  jackdaws.  This  is  a  rarity  in  Egypt  as 
rooks  are  never  seen  south  of  Cairo.  There  are  two  foxes  which  live 
inside  the  garden,  and  I  see  them  most  days ;  they  sleep  generally  in 
the  day  time  behind  some  cactuses  or  at  the  foot  of  a  palm  tree,  and 
they  often  jump  up  as  I  walk  round,  and  trot  away.  They  come  some- 
times within  a  few  yards  of  my  feet,  being  accustomed  to  the  work- 
people, and  not  afraid  of  me  because  I  wear  an  Arab  dress.  I  have 
given  orders  here  that  there  shall  be  absolute  amdn  even  for  wolves,  and 
the  hyenas  which  sometimes  make  their  way  over  the  garden  wall.  I 
superintend  the  labour  now,  mark  out  the  work,  and  pay  the  wages, 
pruning  the  trees  with  a  pair  of  garden  nippers.  This  is  a  delightful 
occupation. 

"  2Oth  Jan. —  I  don't  know  how  sufficiently  to  describe  the  delight 
of  the  life  here.  Anne  and  Judith  and  Cowie  (their  maid),  have 
joined  me  here,  and  we  are  idly  busy  all  day  long.  The  whole  of  the 
garden  (30  acres)  has  now  been  weeded  and  dug  twice.  The  irriga- 
tion engine  has  been  repaired,  and  watering  will  begin  regularly  next 
week.  Day  has  gone  by  like  day,  each  full  of  interest.  This  morning 
we  began  pulling  down  an  outhouse  to  clear  the  land  for  a  new  build- 
ing; thirty  men  and  boys  have  been  working  at  the  job  in  high  good 
humour,  and  certainly  they  are  neither  lazy  nor  unintelligent.  In  the 
midst  of  the  demolition  a  large  cobra  jumped  out  and  put  up  his  hood 
in  the  middle  of  them,  but  they  knocked  him  over  with  their  picks 
before  he  could  do  any  harm.  He  measured  exactly  six  feet  in  length, 


1889]  Building  Adventures  15 

and  by  general  advice  he  was  cut  up  at  once  into  four  portions  and 
thrust  down  the  throat  of  a  sick  camel  they  had  with  them,  for  a  cure.1 
Four  other  smaller  snakes  were  also  killed,  but  these  were  of  a  harm- 
less kind.  They  tell  me  a  horned  viper  was  also  seen  in  the  garden, 
a  fortnight  before  I  came,  but  this  is  unusual  except  in  the  extreme 
heat  of  summer.  Lizards,  of  course,  are  plentiful.  I  have  seen  one 
with  rudimentary  legs  only,  making  its  way  along  the  ground  as  snakes 
do,  its  feet  hardly  helping  it. 

"  22nd  Jan. —  We  have  begun  a  new  wing  to  the  house,  building  with 
the  ordinary  sun-dried  bricks,  contracted  for  at  the  rate  of  8  piastres 
to  the  cubic  metre.  There  will  be  three  rooms  upstairs  and  three  down- 
stairs, and  the  whole  will  cost  about  £80.  Also  I  bought  a  new  engine 
for  irrigation,  and  I  am  restocking  the  garden  with  young  orange 
plants,  and  in  two  or  three  years,  if  things  go  well,  it  will  be  a  better 
property  than  when  I  bought  it  seven  years  ago.  I  could  be  quite 
content  to  spend  the  rest  of  my  days  in  this  pleasant  work. 

"  2gth  Jan. —  To-day  two  three-year-old  colts  and  a  filly  arrived  at 
the  garden,  which  I  have  bought  of  AH  Pasha  Sherif,  all  three  of  the 
Viceroy  Abbas  Fs  stock,  one  colt  and  a  filly,  a  Jellabi,  the  other  a 
Seglawi  Ibn  Soudan.  This  last  ought  to  be  valuable  some  day  for 
our  stud  in  England.  [This  was  '  Mesaoud,'  so  celebrated  afterwards 
as  our  most  successful  sire.]  Ali  Pasha's  horses  are  the  only  ones  of 
pure  Arabian  breed  in  Egypt,  and  there  are  certain  points  about  them 
superior  to  all  others,  perhaps.  He  has  an  old  one-eyed  Seglawi 
named  Ibn  Nadir,  which  I  consider  the  finest  horse,  taking  him  all 
round,  I  ever  saw,  white,  with  immense  strength  and  breeding  com- 
bined, long  and  low,  with  splendid  legs  and  hocks,  a  fine  head  and 
neck,  tail  always  carried.  Our  colts  arrived  as  the  noonday  gun  was 
being  fired  from  the  citadel  at  Cairo.  They  had  been  brought  round 
by  the  desert  entrance  through  Zeyd's  precaution  to  avoid  the  evil 
eye.  He  also  sacrificed  a  lamb  on  the  threshold  of  the  garden  and 
sprinkled  their  foreheads  with  blood.  I  like  these  old  Mosaic  rites  and 
superstitions.  Similarly  on  Friday  the  first  stone  of  our  new  house 
was  laid,  and  another  lamb  was  slaughtered  on  the  corner-stone,  and 
the  blood  made  to  flow  over  it  with  a  Bismillah  errahman  errahim.  l(t 
is  possible  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats  do  not  wash  away  sin, 
but  it  must  be  pleasing  still,  at  any  rate  more  so  than  the  godless  rites 
of  our  own  stone-laying  with  a  champagne  bottle.  The  work-people 
were  then  feasted,  and  a  heavy  shower  of  rain  came  down  to  bless  the 
building.  Zeyd  is  in  the  seventh  heaven  at  all  these  high  doings,  and 
is  encamped  with  the  horses  under  the  great  fig  tree.  The  work- 
people have  a  merry  time  here,  men  and  women  working  together,  and 

1  N.B.—  The  camel  recovered 


16  Zebehr  Pasha  [1889 

there  are  one  or  two  pretty  girls  among  them  who  have  a  deal  of  atten- 
tion paid  them.  They  wear  no  veils  while  at  work,  but  are  quiet  and 
well  behaved."  Zeyd,  here  spoken  of,  was  a  Bedouin  from  Nejd,  who 
had  attached  himself  to  our  service,  a  man  of  imagination,  a  poet  and, 
like  all  the  Nejd  Bedouins,  an  enthusiast  about  horses.  He  was  a  con- 
stant pleasure  to  us  for  this  reason  though  repeatedly  in  trouble  through 
his  little  respect  for  persons  and  the  inconsequence  of  his  tongue.  He 
was  also  of  value  to  us  as  a  centre  of  Arabian  gossip,  including  political 
news,  sometimes  of  importance. 

"  Zeyd  tells  me  that  when  he  was  at  Damascus  in  1887  he  learned 
that  the  French  Government  had  written  a  letter  to  Ibn  Rashid  and 
had  sent  it  to  Hail  through  Mohammed  Ibn  Abdul  Kader,  the  Emir's 
eldest  son.  It  contained  an  offer  of  alliance,  and  to  make  Ibn  Rashid 
independent  of  the  Sultan  under  French  protection.  Ibn  Rashid,  how- 
ever, had  forwarded  the  letter  to  Constantinople,  and  Ibn  Abdul  Kader 
had  been  hauled  over  the  coals  by  the  Sultan,  but  had  excused  himself, 
saying  that  as  a  French  subject  he  could  not  disobey  the  order  of  his 
government. 

"  loth  March. —  There  is  certainly  just  now  a  movement  going  on  in 
Egypt  in  favour  of  Arabi's  recall,  and  I  have  received  notices  of  it 
from  various  quarters  with  a  list  of  those  who  would  act  with  Arabi 
in  forming  a  Nationalist  Ministry.  Also  Ahmed  Minshavvi  Pasha  has 
sent  one  of  the  principal  Sheykhs  of  Tantah  to  consult  me  on  the 
matter,  Sheykh  Abdul  Mejid,  and  a  message  has  come  from  a  number 
of  ex-officers  from  Arabi's  army  who  wish  to  see  me,  but  I  have  declined 
this,  as  it  could  do  no  possible  good  and  might  make  trouble;  the 
Egyptians  have  not  spirit  in  them  to  revolt  and  if  they  did  it  would 
not  profit  them.  I  am  glad  all  the  same  to  find  that  Arabi  is  not 
forgotten." 

One  visit  only  I  record  that  winter  of  any  great  interest  now.  This 
was  one  I  paid  with  Lady  Anne  to  Zebehr  Pasha,  Gordon's  old  enemy 
in  the  Soudan,  now  held  a  prisoner  in  Egypt.  During  the  troubles  at 
Cairo  which  had  followed  Gordon's  death  he  had  been  arrested  by 
Baring  by  an  arbitrary  act  of  authority  and  sent  on  board  a  man-of-war 
to  Gibraltar,  and  there  detained  at  the  Queen's  pleasure  for  two  years 
on  no  legal  charge,  for  none  was  brought  against  him,  and  there  he 
might  have  remained  for  the  rest  of  his  days  had  it  not  been  for  the 
interest  excited  in  his  case  by  Lord  Ribblesdale  who  had  made  friends 
with  him  at  Gibraltar  and  brought  his  case  before  the  House  of  Lords. 
In  1889  he  was  newly  returned  to  Egypt,  and  was  now  once  more  a 
State  prisoner  of  the  Khedive,  occupying  one  of  the  minor  palaces  on 
the  banks  of  the  Nile.  It  is  thus  that  I  describe  our  breakfast  with 
him. 


1889]  "/  am  only  a  WM  Man"  17 

"  Zebehr  Pasha  is  a  really  charming  man  who  entertained  us  with 
the  greatest  honour  at  breakfast.  He  is  lodged  in  the  Ghizeh  palace 
where  he  is  a  State  prisoner,  though  allowed  to  go  about  to  a  certain 
extent  in  Cairo,  under  the  charge  of  a  certain  Cashmiri  Abderrahman 
Effendi.  Zebehr  is  a  tall,  slight  man,  with  long  effile  hands,  and  a  face 
of  the  profoundest  melancholy.  His  complexion  is  brown,  and  his 
features  show  a  cross  between  the  Arab  and  the  Berberi,  the  Arab 
predominating,  and  a  smile  of  great  beauty.  He  was  dressed  in 
Egyptian  uniform  loosely  made,  shivered  much,  though  it  was  a  bright 
sunny  day,  and  complained  of  the  cold.  He  has  a  bad  cough,  and  I 
should  think  would  not  live  long.  State  prisoners  have  a  way  of  dying 
in  Egypt.  We  talked  on  most  political  subjects,  but  he  avoided  giving 
an  opinion  on  the  actual  position  in  the  Soudan ;  perhaps  he  was  afraid 
of  the  Cashmiri.  '  It  is  the  Government's  affair  not  ours,'  he  said. 
Of  Gordon  he  spoke  with  hearty  respect,  and  of  Sir  John  Adye,  and 
of  several  other  English  officers  he  had  known,  but  he  had  no  good 
word  for  Baring,  who  was  a  financier,  he  had  heard,  not  a  politician. 
He  told  us  Emin's  history  and  Osman  Digna's.  He  spoke  highly  of 
Arabi,  said  that  he  had  been  present  at  a  conversation  between  him 
and  Dervish  Pasha  in  which  Dervish  had  offered  Arabi  £250  a  month 
if  he  would  go  to  Constantinople,  but  Arabi  had  replied  that  even  if  he 
were  willing,  there  were  10,000  men  would  stand  between  him  and  the 
sea.  He  said  that  he  had  been  very  much  misrepresented  about  this 
conversation  in  the  English  papers,  and  had  never  spoken  a  word  but 
what  was  honourable  to  Arabi.  He  could  not  advise  Arabi  to  come 
back  to  Egypt  except  as  Minister;  this,  however,  Tewfik  would  never 
have.  All  our  conversation  was  in  Arabic,  which  he  speaks  purely, 
being  easy  to  understand.  When  I  told  him  the  English  Occupation 
would  not  last  for  ever  he  smiled  incredulously. 

"  He  took  us  round  the  garden,  an  uninteresting  French  garden  laid 
out  in  pebbled  walks  and  rockeries,  and  imitation  lawns.  It  and  the 
palace  cost  Ismail,  they  say,  several  millions,  and  the  building  is  in 
ruins  already.  Then  we  had  breakfast  and  Zebehr  was  delighted  be- 
cause I  ate  with  my  hands ;  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  himself  with 
knives  and  forks.  '  I  am  only  a  wild  man,'  he  said,  '  and  use  the 
instruments  God  gave  me.'  And  he  turned  angrily  upon  the  Cashmiri, 
who  was  pretending  that  he  could  not  manage  without  European  ways. 
Before  going  I  asked  him  if  I  could  do  anything  for  him,  and  he 
said :  '  No,  we  two  are  in  the  same  position,  the  Government  does 
not  regard  us  favourably.  We  cannot  help  each  other,'  and  he  laid  his 
hand  affectionately  on  my  arm.  He  complained,  however,  how  badly 
he  had  been  treated  in  money  matters,  and  I  said  that  the  day  might 
come  when  I  could  do  something  for  him.  Our  visit  was,  I  fancy,  the 


i8  Dalmatian  Politics  [1889 

greatest  pleasure,  poor  man,  he  has  had  for  many  months.  He  came 
down  to  put  us  into  our  carriage  and  insisted  upon  paying  the  driver 
his  hire." 

We  left  Sheykh  Obeyd  on  the  8th  of  March  and  Alexandria  on 
the  loth. 

Here  ends  our  winter's  stay  in  Egypt  of  that  year. 

"  itfh  March. —  We  are  in  the  Gulf  of  Fiume,  and  our  journey  is 
nearly  over,  on  our  way  to  Fiume  to  spend  a  fortnight  with  the  Hoyos 
family  before  returning  home.  The  captain  of  our  ship,  the  Ceres,  is 
a  Dalmatian,  and  by  his  own  account  was  much  mixed  up  in  past  times 
with  revolutionary  affairs.  He  tells  me  his  two  brothers  emigrated  to 
America  after  1848,  and  his  son  has  recently  been  in  prison  for  political 
reasons.  He  talks  of  a  social  war  as  imminent  in  Europe,  especially 
in  Germany,  France,  and  Italy,  and  looks  upon  Bismarck  as  the  deviser 
of  all  evil,  and  on  a  revolt  against  him  and  military  ideas  as  certain. 
He  believes,  too,  in  the  overthrow  of  the  British  Empire  in  India  by 
the  Russians,  who  will  be  joined  by  the  Indians.  He  has  recently  seen 
Arabi  in  Ceylon.  We  touched  at  Corfu  and  Lissa,  and  the  Ionian 
Islands,  terribly  bare  and  scored  with  burnings.  We  saw  them  well, 
coasting  close  under  Zante,  Ithaca,  and  Cephalonia.  Corfu  is  a  pretty 
town,  little  changed  since  the  British  evacuation,  though  the  people  on 
board  say  the  place  is  in  decline.  Lissa  we  saw  by  moonlight.  Admiral 
Tegethoff,  who  won  the  battle  there  for  Austria,  did  so  against  orders 
and  against  rules.  The  Italian  fleet  was  four  times  his  strength,  but 
his  action  was  fortunate  and  probably  saved  the  Dalmatian  coast  to 
Austria.  There  are  three  parties  it  seems  in  Dalmatia:  a  Philo-Rus- 
sian,  the  most  numerous;  a  Philo-Austrian,  the  most  wealthy  and 
educated ;  and  a  Philo-Italian,  confined  to  a  few  sea-coast  towns.  The 
officers  on  board  are  all  Catholic  and  Philo-Austrian  but  radicals,  and 
talk  something  very  like  socialism  without  disguise.  They  are  bitterly 
opposed  to  Russia.  They  are  all  Dalmatians.  They  resent  the  union 
of  Fiume  to  Hungary,  but  admit  that  there  is  no  National  party  in 
Dalmatia.  The  captain,  Gelachich,  is  a  capital  fellow,  a  native  of 
Lessina." 

At  Lissa  we  received  news  of  the  discomfiture  of  the  "  Times  "  in 
the  Parnell  case,  by  far  the  most  important  incident  at  home  since  the 
overthrow  of  Gladstone  in  1886. 

"  iSth  March,  Villa  Hoyos,  Fiume. —  We  have  been  a  week  here 
staying  with  Count  and  Countess  George  Hoyos  and  their  children, 
governesses,  and  tutors,  a  large  cheerful  party  of  the  kind  I  like.  The 
villa  is  like  Paddockhurst  (their  place  in  Sussex)  in  miniature.  The 
Hoyos'  are  of  ancient  Spanish  extraction,  brought  to  Austria  by  Charles 
Quint,  and  she  is  the  daughter  of  Whitehead,  the  inventor  of  the 
torpedo,  who,  beginning  life  as  an  engineer  on  board  an  Austrian 


1889]  Crown  Prince  Rudolph's  Death  19 

Lloyd  steamer,  has  made  a  large  fortune.  He  is  an  admirable  sample 
of  the  self-made  man,  quiet,  unobstrusive,  absorbed  in  his  work,  liberal 
to  his  men,  open-handed  in  all  his  ways.  The  Countess  is  a  pretty 
woman,  mother  of  pretty  daughters,  he  a  well-bred  man  of  much  sense 
and  information,  a  first  cousin  of  Hoyos  the  Ambassador  at  Paris  and 
of  that  younger  Hoyos  who  was  connected  the  other  day  with  the 
Austrian  Crown  Prince  Rudolph's  death.  This  is  what  they  tell  me, 
or  rather  what  she  has  told  me  about  that  tragedy. 

"  The  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  was  a  very  charming  man  and  had 
had  innumerable  successes  with  women,  but  had  never  been  in  love 
till  at  a  party  last  year  he  met  a  girl  of  seventeen,  Mademoiselle  de 
Wetschera,  daughter  of  a  certain  Baroness  of  that  name,  of  no  very 
honest  reputation.  The  girl,  however,  was  charming,  and  when  the 
Prince  made  love  'to  her  fell  desperately  too  in  love.  Their  liaison  had 
lasted  four  months,  and  though  the  Prince  talked  somewhat  strangely, 
nobody  suspected  there  was  anything  so  serious  in  the  case.  Hoyos 
was  a  friend  of  the  Prince,  not  in  his  service  but  very  intimate  and  in 
the  habit  of  going  with  him  on  his  shooting  excursions.  He  went 
down  at  the  Prince's  invitation  to  Meyerling,  to  shoot  with  him  the 
following  day,  and  they  passed  the  evening  till  nine  o'clock  very  gaily, 
when  the  Prince  went  to  bed.  Hoyos  knew  nothing  of  Mademoiselle 
de  Wetschera's  being  at  the  shooting  lodge.  In  the  morning,  however, 
he  was  called  by  the  Prince's  servant,  who  complained  that  his  master's 
door  was  locked,  and  they  went  together,  and  after  knocking  in  vain, 
broke  it  open,  when  they  found  the  two  bodies  together  in  the  Prince's 
bed.  The  girl  was  then  recognized  by  Hoyos,  and  seeing  her  to  be  '  a 
member  of  society,'  his  first  idea  was  to  conceal  her  presence  there. 
He  accordingly  carried  her  with  the  servant's  help  into  a  distant  room, 
where  they  left  her,  undressed  as  she  was,  locked  up,  till  her  relations 
should  come.  This  was  not  till  the  evening,  when  her  uncle  arrived, 
dressed  the  girl  with  his  own  hands,  and  placed  her  in  his  brougham, 
upright,  beside  him,  and  so  conveyed  her  home,  and  she  was  buried 
with  equal  secrecy  in  the  night.  With  regard  to  the  Prince,  Hoyos 
also  conveyed  the  news  to  the  Emperor,  and  it  was  tried  to  hush  up 
the  truth  but  in  vain.  The  Crown  Prince  had  previously  written  to 
Sechenyi  a  letter,  part  of  which  only  has  been  made  public ;  the  un- 
published part  contained  these  words :  '  I  am  resolved  to  die,  since  I 
am  no  longer  worthy  to  wear  the  Imperial  uniform.'  The  Countess 
says  she  knew  the  Crown  Prince  well,  she  had  also  met  the  girl  and 
liked  her.  She  could  not  condemn  them  for  their  death,  poor  things. 

"  Another  topic  of  conversation  has  been  King  Milan's  abdication 
in  Servia.  According  to  the  Hoyos',  Queen  Nathalie  has  long  been 
plotting  against  her  husband,  hoping  to  become  Regent  for  her  son. 
She  is  a  very  pretty,  charming  woman,  but  '  a  Russian,  and  therefore 


2O  King  Milan's  Abdication  [1889 

an  intriguer.'  The  first  hint  her  husband  had  of  her  designs  was  on 
his  return  from  his  lost  battle  of  Slivnitza  in  Bulgaria.  He  was  dis- 
pirited and  thought  of  abdicating,  and,  when  he  told  her,  she  was  for 
his  doing  it  at  once.  This  shocked  him.  Now  she  has  gained  half 
her  object  and  the  other  half  she  will  gain  soon  by  returning  as  Regent 
to  Servia."  The  battle  of  Slivnitza  here  referred  to  was  one  of  the 
earliest  of  the  Balkan  internecine  fightings  after  the  independence  of 
Servia  and  Bulgaria  had  been  enforced  upon  the  Sultan  by  European 
pressure.  It  ended  disastrously  for  the  Servians  who,  without  much 
cause  of  quarrel,  had  invaded  Bulgaria  and  were  routed  with  heavy 
loss.  The  Austrian  Empire  at  that  time  was  believed  to  be  in  a  very 
unstable  position,  held  together  only  by  the  personal  popularity  of  the 
aged  Emperor.  We  stayed  ten  days  with  the  Hoyos'  and  while  there 
were  shown  experiments  in  torpedo  practice  by  Whitehead,  who  had 
his  factory  adjoining  the  villa.  I  find,  however,  nothing  in  my  diary 
worth  transcribing  here,  unless  it  be  a  list  of  persons  whose  ac- 
quaintance we  made,  belonging  to  Viennese  society.  This  includes 
Count  Zichy,  governor  of  the  town,  and  his  father,  formerly  Austrian 
Ambassador  at  Constantinople ;  Prince  and  Princess  Sanguscko,  cousins 
of  our  friends  the  Potockis  in  Poland,  and  joint  owner  with  them  of 
their  famous  Arabian  stud;  Count  and  Countess  Breuner,  Countess 
Palffy  and  others.  From  Fiume  we  went  on  by  Vienna  and  the 
Orient  Express  to  Paris,  and  so  home  to  England,  arriving  there  on 
the  5th  of  April. 

Here  there  is  a  long  gap  in  my  diary  and  nothing  of  any  public  im- 
portance, except  the  record  of  a  second  interview  I  had  with  Boulanger, 
who  had  come  to  London  with  the  idea  of  making  friends  there,  and 
had  made  an  appointment  with  me  to  see  him  at  a  house  he  had  taken 
in  Portland  Place.  I  write: 

"  iqth  May. —  On  Wednesday  I  saw  General  Boulanger  by  appoint- 
ment at  his  house  in  Portland  Place.  He  looks  older  and  more  worn 
than  when  I  saw  him  six  months  ago,  but  he  talked  cheerfully  enough. 
I  told  him  I  had  been  much  taken  to  task  by  the  leaders  of  the  Liberal 
Party  for  my  avowal  of  sympathy  with  his  cause  (my  letter  to  the 
'Times'  of  last  year),  and  asked  him  to  inform  me  on  certain  points 
which  might  strengthen  my  position.  The  first  point  I  put  was  whether 
he  intended  to  destroy  liberty  in  France,  to  shut  up  the  Chambers  and 
make  himself  Dictator?  intentions  commonly  attributed  to  him.  To 
this  he  said  that  the  idea  was  ridiculous.  The  French  could  never  get  on 
without  talking,  and  a  Parliament  in  some  form  they  must  have.  What 
he  wanted  was  to  do  away  with  the  personal  politics  of  the  Chamber, 
which  he  could  effect  by  reforming  it  (the  Revision).  Frenchmen 
must  be  united  into  a  National  Party  instead  of  broken  up  into  small 
groups.  The  power  of  the  President  must  be  strengthened,  but  within 


1889]  Boulanger  Again  21 

limits.  Those  possessed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  will 
probably  suffice.  There  must  be  the  Veto,  but  he  would  not  say  that 
in  an  old  society  like  the  French  it  would  do  to  assimilate  the  American 
regime  too  closely.  He  had  no  intention  at  all  of  destroying  liberty. 
Thus,  in  the  matter  of  education  he  was  for  full  liberty  for  all  creeds, 
not  as  at  present  when  religious  education  was  persecuted.  The  French 
provinces  did  not  want  secular  education  and  it  should  not  be  forced 
on  them,  but  he  was  not  for  this  a  Clerical.  He  did  not  himself  go 
to  Mass,  but  he  was  determined  everyone  else  should  do  so  who  liked. 
If  a  man  chose  to  go  about  in  fancy  dress  it  was  no  concern  of  his 
neighbours.  On  my  second  point,  peace  and  war,  he  repeated  what 
he  had  said  to  me  last  autumn  about  the  hazards  of  war,  and  his  un- 
willingness to  rush  into  hostilities.  He  could  not  ever  propose  to 
disarm  till  the  question  of  Alsace-Lorraine  was  settled.  No  Govern- 
ment which  did  so  could  stand  a  fortnight.  He  believed,  however, 
that  the  question  could  be  settled  without  war  if  Frenchmen  were 
united.  He  would  then  most  gladly  propose  a  disarmament.  In  this 
sense  I  might  say  of  him  that  his  ultimate  end  was  to  bring  about  a 
disbanding  of  the  great  'armies  of  the  Continent.  This  he  authorized 
me  to  tell  my  Liberal  friends.  He  invited  me  cordially  to  come  again 
any  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  or  Thursday  morning." 

I  fear  I  did  little  towards  helping  the  General  in  this  or  any  other 
way.  Politics  were  at  that  moment  repugnant  to  me,  and  I  could 
not  bring  myself  to  start  on  any  new  campaign.  I  never  saw  the 
General  again. 


CHAPTER  II 

EGYPT    UNDER   TEWFIK,    I 

The  summer  of  1889  saw  me  occupied  almost  exclusively  with  literary 
work.  It  was  then  that  I  wrote  my  poem,  "  A  New  Pilgrimage,"  which 
with  many  other  pieces  of  more  or  less  the  same  date  I  published  in 
the  early  autumn.  This  brought  me  once  more  into  pleasant  relations 
with  my  friends,  even  those  who  had  been  most  angry  with  me  for  my 
doings  in  Ireland.  Chief  among  these  was  my  cousin,  George  Wynd- 
ham,  who  already  the  year  before  had  sent  me  a  pleasant  word.  "  We 
have  so  many  grounds,"  he  wrote,  "  for  friendship,  our  common  love 
of  sport  and  of  poetry,  and  especially  our  common  blood,  that  I  think 
it  would  be  very  foolish  to  allow  differences  of  politics  and  opinion 
to  interfere  with  it  in  any  way.  I  sincerely  hope  that  you  think  so 
too."  Now,  on  my  return  to  England  in  1889,  I  found  him  full  of 
affectionate  endeavour  to  make  things  pleasant  for  me  on  my  re- 
emergence  into  social  life.  In  this  he  showed  himself  no  idle  friend. 
I  had  hardly  arrived  in  London  when  he  arranged  occasions  of  meeting 
for  me  at  his  house  in  Park  Lane  with  our  mutual  friends,  and  event- 
ually one  with  Arthur  Balfour,  at  which  we  buried  our  political  hatchet 
in  mutual  amiabilities,  an  attitude  we  have  ever  since  preserved  as 
often  as  we  have  met.  Another  friend,  equally  dear  to  me  with 
George,  whom  I  recovered  at  this  time,  was  Lytton.  He,  too,  had 
written  me  an  affectionate  letter,  regretting  that  he  had  missed  seeing 
me  on  my  passage  through  Paris.  As  to  my  women  friends,  my  prison 
adventures,  I  soon  found,  had  done  me  no  real  discredit  with  them. 
The  only  one  of  them  that  had  been  seriously  shocked  at  it  was  Princess 
Wagram,  who,  not  being  English,  had  made  herself  more  English  in  the 
matter  than  were  my  own  countrywomen,  and  now  she,  too,  was  recon- 
ciled. With  the  rest  the  episode  was  a  title  to  romantic  interest,  which 
made  it  easy  for  me  to  resume  my  place  and  more  than  my  place  in 
society.  Their  kindness  did  me  full  amends,  and  for  the  next  few 
years  strewed  my  path  with  flowers  to  the  extent  that  politics  lost  their 
hold  over  my  mind,  more  than  perhaps  they  should  have  done.  My 
daughter  Judith,  too,  now  growing  up,  was  a  new  interest  of  a  very 
absorbing  kind,  and  my  diary,  when  it  is  resumed,  I  find  dealing  mainly 
with  home  occupations  and  the  details  of  my  private  life. 

22 


1889]  William  Morris  23 

Nor  must  I  omit  another  influence  which  was  an  important  one  with 
me  that  summer  in  the  direction  of  weaning  me  from  home  politics, 
that  of  an  intimacy  which  I  then  for  the  first  time  enjoyed  with  William 
Morris.  I  had  already  for  some  years  known  the  Morrises,  my  first 
acquaintance  with  them  having  been  begun  in  1883,  when  I  met  Mrs. 
Morris  at  Naworth,  having  been  invited  specially  for  the  purpose  by 
Mrs.  Howard  (Lady  Carlisle),  and  had  spent  a  week  there  in  her 
company,  and  we  had  made  friends,  but  of  Morris  himself  I  had  as 
yet  seen  little  except  occasionally  when  I  called  on  them  in  Hammer- 
smith. This  summer,  however,  of  1889  saw  me  for  the  first  time  at 
Kelmscott  Manor,  where  I  had  an  opportunity  of  intimate  intercourse 
with  him  during  the  many  pleasant  days  of  gudgeon  fishing  we  enjoyed 
together  on  the  Upper  Thames  and  the  evenings  when  we  argued  the 
questions,  artistic  and  political,  which  occupied  his  mind. 

Morris  was  at  that  time  in  a  mood  of  reaction  from  his  socialistic 
fervour.  He  had  quarrelled  with  Hyndman,  and  was  disgusted  at  the 
personal  jealousies  of  his  fellow-workers  in  the  cause  and  at  their 
cowardice  in  action.  He  never  got  over  the  pusillanimity  they  had 
shown  at  the  Trafalgar  Square  meeting  two  years  before,  when  a  few 
hundred  policemen  had  dealt  with  thousands  of  them  as  though  they 
had  been  schoolboys.  Morris  was  too  loyal  and  too  obstinate  to  abjure 
his  creed,  but  the  heart  of  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  proletariat 
had  gone.  In  some  ways  our  two  positions  were  the  same.  We  had 
both  of  us  sacrificed  much  socially  to  our  principles,  and  our  principles 
had  failed  to  justify  themselves  by  results,  and  we  were  both  driven 
back  on  earlier  loves,  art,  poetry,  romance.  Morris,  with  one  who 
understood  him  and  dared  to  argue  with  him  boldly,  was  a  delightful 
companion.  He  was  intolerant  of  the  conventional  talk  of  society,  and 
had  little  sympathy  with  ideas  foreign  to  his  own.  He  had  little 
patience  with  fools,  and  the  prettiest  woman  in  the  world  could  not 
seduce  him  into  listening  to  nonsense  if  there  was  nothing  of  fact 
behind  it.  His  time  was  too  precious  to  waste  on  them ;  and  the  fine 
ladies  who  affected  artistic  tastes  in  his  company  without  real  knowledge 
put  him  straightway  to  flight.  To  such  he  was  rude  and  repellent,  but 
to  anyone  who  could  increase  his  stock  of  knowledge  on  any  subject  he 
lent  a  willing  ear,  whether  artist  or  artisan,  with  absolute  indifference 
as  to  his  social  position.  In  his  domestic  life  Morris  was  too  busy  to 
be  unhappy,  and  of  too  sanguine  a  temperament  to  worry  himself  much 
over  past  disappointments ;  yet  disappointments  cannot  but  have  been 
his.  He  had  a  strong  and  affectionate  heart,  and  had  centred  his  home 
affections  on  his  two  children,  and  the  younger,  May,  had  just  made 
an  engagement  he  disapproved,  while  the  elder,  Jenny,  who  had  been 
his  pride  as  a  child  for  her  intellectual  faculties,  had  overworked  her 
brain  and  was  now  subject  to  epileptic  fits.  It  was  touching  now  at 


24  Kelmscott  Manor  [1889 

Kelmscott  to  watch  Morris's  solicitude  for  this  poor  girl  on  whom  his 
chief  home  love  was  bestowed. 

Kelmscott  Manor  was  a  romantic  house,  and  the  life  there  extremely 
primitive.  There  were  few  of  the  conveniences  of  modern  life.  The 
rooms  below  and  also  on  the  upper  floor  were  all  passage  rooms  opening 
one  into  another,  and  in  order  to  reach  the  tapestried  chamber  in  which 
we  sat  in  the  evenings,  it  was  necessary  to  pass  to  and  fro  through 
Morris's  own  bedroom,  in  which  he  lay  at  night  in  a  great  square 
Elizabethan  four-post  bed,  an  arrangement  which  would  have  been  of 
extreme  discomfort  to  anyone  less  tolerant  of  such  things  than  he, 
and  less  indifferent  to  his  personal  convenience.  It  was  the  same  thing 
in  the  day  time.  He  worked  at  the  designs  he  was  making  for  his 
carpets,  and  at  his  drawings,  and  the  corrections  of  his  proofs  in  a 
room  where  he  was  liable  every  minute  to  disturbance.  Such  discom- 
forts had  been  submitted  to  by  our  forefathers,  and  why  not,  he 
thought,  by  us.  It  was  this  insensitiveness  to  his  surroundings  that 
enabled  him  to  deal  with  the  prodigious  volume  of  work  which  he  daily 
assigned  himself,  both  manual  and  intellectual. 

Such  was  the  house.  Out  of  doors  the  river  —  an  upper  branch  of 
the  Thames  —  was  a  constant  attraction,  and  there  Morris  each  after- 
noon took  complete  holiday.  He  loved  boating,  as  it  reminded  him  of 
his  Oxford  days,  and  he  loved  sitting  hour  after  hour  in  a  punt  with 
rod  and  line,  capturing  the  local  gudgeon,  a  sport  requiring  skill,  on 
which  he  prided  himself,  not  without  modest  reason.  In  all  matters 
concerning  the  river  he  took  a  passionate  and  proprietary  interest, 
cherishing  a  special  grudge  against  the  Thames  Conservancy,  a  body 
which  interfered  with  individual  rights,  and  whose  legitimate  authority 
he  denied.  Against  these  he  constantly  inveighed.  He  loved,  too,  in 
1  memory  of  Oxford,  to  engage  in  wordy  warfare  with  the  bargees,  and 
had  a  strong  vocabulary  of  abuse  for  them  which  he  did  not  spare. 
When  on  the  river  he  affected  a  rough  manner  even  with  his  fellows 
in  the  boat,  and  scorned  to  apologize  if  accidents  through  his  fault 
occurred,  all  which  was  in  keeping  with  his  appearance,  which  was  that 
of  a  Norwegian  sea  captain  rather  than  a  poet,  and  of  this  he  was 
proud.  He  was  very  dogmatic,  with  violent  likes  and  dislikes.  He 
used  to  say  that  St.  Peter's  was  the  ugliest  building  in  the  world  after 
St.  Paul's,  and  of  these  things  he  would  discourse  when  the  fish  were 
off  their  feed,  for  when  they  were  biting  he  was  too  absorbed  in  his 
catch  to  have  a  thought  for  anything  else. 

Of  poetry  he  affected  to  have  little  knowledge,  and  of  the  work  of 
those  he  was  averse  to,  he  would  pretend  never  to  have  read  a  word.  I 
remember  that  on  one  boating  excursion  in  which  we  all  took  part,  we 
were  compelled  to  take  refuge  from  heavy  rain  in  a  little  inn  by  the 
river  side,  and  that  we  found  in  it  a  book  of  poetical  extracts  which  we 


1889]  Political  Disappointments  25 

amused  ourselves  by  reading,  and  that  among  the  rest  were  those  lines 
of  Byron,  perhaps  his  best  and  quite  his  best  known : 

There  was  a  sound  of  revelry  by  night. 

This  he  declared  to  be  rubbish,  and  that  he  had  not  a  notion  whom 
they  were  by.  Morris  in  these  playful  moods  was  very  attractive,  and 
of  all  the  great  men  I  have  been  in  close  relations  with,  I  reckon  him 
intellectually  the  strongest.  He  had  an  astonishingly  firm  grasp  of 
things,  and  an  immensely  wide  range  of  knowledge.  I  never  knew 
him  deceived  by  a  false  argument,  and  he  was  difficult  to  overcome  in 
discussion  even  on  subjects  his  adversary  knew  the  best.  One  thing 
only,  I  think,  he  did  not  know,  much  as  he  had  written  about  it,  the 
love  of  women,  and  that  he  never  cared  to  discuss.  My  talks  with  him 
that  summer  confirmed  me  in  my  resolution  politically  to  retire  into  my 
shell,  and  I  think  my  resolution  had  a  corresponding  influence  on 
him. 

"  i$th  Oct.,  1889.  Paris. —  I  have  left  home  once  more  for  the 
winter,  and  with  a  lighter  heart  than  I  have  lately  had.  My  last  act 
before  leaving  England  was  to  write  two  letters  severing  the  last  links 
which  bound  me  to  political  life.  One  was  to  the  Kidderminister 
electors  telling  them  that  they  must  not  depend  on  me  to  stand  again 
for  Parliament,  the  other  to  T.  P.  O'Connor  resigning  my  directorship 
of  the  '  Star.'  I  have  intended  this  for  more  than  a  year,  but  have 
taken  time  to  reflect,  and  am  sure  now  that  the  step  is  a  wise  one. 
As  a  matter  of  principle  I  cannot  go  on  pretending  to  believe  in  the 
Liberal  Party,  with  which  I  have  not  an  idea  in  common,  beyond  Irish 
Home  Rule.  As  a  matter  of  personal  ambition,  politics  have  nothing 
more  to  give  me.  I  will  not  be  a  parliamentary  drudge,  and  I  cannot 
aspire  to  lead  a  party. 

"  Of  doing  good  in  the  world  in  any  public  way  I  also  despair.  I 
do  not  see  clearly  in  what  direction  good  lies.  I  do  not  love  civilised 
humanity ;  and  poor  savage  human  nature  seems  a  lost  cause.  I  have 
done  what  I  could  for  it.  I  have,  I  think,  saved  Egypt  from  absorption 
by  Europe,  and  I  have  certainly,  by  stopping  the  Soudan  war  in  1885, 
put  back  the  clock  of  African  conquest  for  a  generation,  perhaps  for  a 
century.  But  the  march  of  '  Progress  '  is  irresistible  in  the  end ;  and 
every  year  the  old-fashioned  idea  of  the  rights  of  uncivilised  man  dies 
more  completely  out.  Even  in  Ireland,  the  National  cause  is  putting 
itself  in  line  with  nineteenth  century  thought.  The  moonlighters  and 
cattle-houghers  and  rebels  of  all  kinds  are  disappearing;  and,  instead. 
we  see  Parnell  manoeuvring  and  deceiving  in  Parliament  neither  more 
nor  less  than  Gladstone  himself,  and  declaring  with  Roscbcry  for 
Imperial  Federation!  In  all  this  I  have  no  real  lot  or  part.  Ireland 
will  doubtless  get  something  of  what  she  wants,  and  she  has  all  my 


26  At  the  Paris  Embassy  [1889 

good  wishes  still.  But  Imperial  Federation  is  not  worth  going  to 
prison  for  a  second  time  nor  even  standing  another  contested  election. 
I  have  done  enough  —  possibly  too  much  —  and  am  sick  and  weary  of 
the  machinery  of  English  public  life. 

"  On  the  other  hand  stands  the  world  of  art  and  poetry.  In  this 
I  can  still  hope  to  accomplish  something,  and  with  an  advantage  of 
experience  not  every  poet  has.  I  have  a  great  deal  to  accomplish  be- 
fore old  age  takes  me  and  little  time.  My  poems,  my  memoirs,  my 
book  of  maxims  (the  'Wisdom  of  Merlyn)/  my  book  of  the  Arab 
horse.  These  are  work  enough  for  all  my  remaining  strength.  Then, 
how  delightful  life  is  in  perfect  liberty!  Never  have  I  felt  more  cap- 
able of  enjoyment,  of  the  pleasures  of  friendship,  of  the  casual  incidents 
of  romance,  of  the  continuous  happiness  of  life  at  home.  These 
harmonize  with  a  literary,  not  with  a  political  ambition,  and  so  it  is 
best  it  should  be.  Am  I  not  right  ?  " 

The  three  weeks  that  I  spent  at  Paris  on  this  occasion  were  delightful 
ones  passed  all  in  this  mood.  I  found  Lytton  at  the  Embassy,  and  our 
old  intimate  intercourse  was  renewed.  He,  older  than  me  by  nine  years, 
was  already  entering  that  valley  of  the  shadow  of  old  age  from  which 
he  was  never  to  emerge,  and  which  ended  in  his  death  two  years  later. 
It  was  that  in  which  his  last  volume  of  verse  was  written,  and  he  made 
me  the  confidant  of  his  sorrows,  but  this  is  not  the  place  in  which  to 
give  them  more  publicity  than  the  volume  itself  gave  them  when  it 
was  published  after  his  death.  They  served  to  accentuate  my  own 
mood  of  aversion  from  public  affairs,  and  I  spent  most  of  my  time 
with  him  at  the  Embassy,  the  same  well-known  house  and  garden  where 
I  had  spent  so  much  of  my  early  youth  officially  as  a  member  of  it  in 
the  days  of  Lord  Cowley  and  the  Second  Empire.  I  paid  a  visit,  too, 
to  the  Wagrams  at  Gros  Bois,  where  I  mixed  again  in  French  society. 
The  chateau  was  at  that  time  undergoing  repair  of  a  substantial  kind, 
an  experience  it  had  not  had  since  1830,  and  my  hosts  were  living  in 
the  dependance,  an  interesting  suite  of  little  rooms  once  the  abode  of 
Marshal  Berthier's  aides-de-camp,  and  possessed  of  a  certain  historic 
charm,  with  their  Empire  furniture  and  decorations.  We  shot  each 
day  in  the  great  woods. 

"  Gros  Bois,  Wagram  tells  me,  has  been  an  oak  wood  ever  since 
the  time  of  the  Druids.  It  was  a  royal  domain,  and  had  been  given 
over  and  over  again  to  different  favourites  of  the  kings  of  France. 
The  last  instance  was  when  it  was  bestowed  by  Napoleon  on  the 
Prince's  grandfather,  as  the  inscription  over  the  door  records,  his 
'  companion  in  arms.'  The  estate  is  of  about  4,000  hectares,  of  which 
fully  half  are  woodlands,  1,200  being  inside  the  park  wall,  an  ancient 
enclosure  dating  from  1650.  I  never  saw  so  completely  isolated  a 
place,  nor  one  quite  so  enjoyable.  The  woods  are  laid  out  formally 


1889]  Vatican  Politics  27 

(as  French  woods  are)  with  straight  rides  or  rather  drives  of  grass 
cut  through  them,  and  though  there  is  no  old  timber,  all  having  been 
levelled  with  the  ground  in  1814,  the  oak  trees  grown  up  again  from 
the  stub  are  very  beautiful,  and  the  place  is  full  of  woodpeckers,  jays, 
and  magpies,  besides  game.  There  is  a  stone  recording  the  death  of 
the  late  Prince's  first  roebuck :  Id  mon  fils  a  tue  son  premier  chevreuil, 
with  the  date  1826.  This  was  Wagram's  father,  who  went  on  till  1888, 
killing  something  every  day  in  season  and  out  of  season,  partridges  on 
their  nests  if  he  could  find  no  other,  dogs,  and  sometimes  beaters.  All 
is  recorded  in  a  book ;  and  he  might  have  been  the  original  of  Carlyle's 
Baron :  qui  centum  mille  perdices  plumbo  confecit  et  statim  in  stercore 
convertit.  (I  am  not  sure  of  the  Latinity.)  He  died  at  the  beginning 
of  last  year,  being  about  eighty  years  old,  but  shooting  on  to  the  last 
week  of  his  life. 

"  I  have  received  a  nice  letter  from  Kidderminster  in  answer  to 
mine,  and  the  '  Pall  Mall  Gazette '  announces  my  retirement  publicly 
from  political  life.  The  Princess  is  triumphant  at  this  retirement,  as 
she  was  always  opposed  to  my  politics." 

All  this  was  very  demoralizing  from  a  public  point  of  view.  On  the 
25th  I  was  joined  by  my  family  at  Paris,  and  on  the  2nd  November  we 
moved  on  to  Rome  and  Egypt.  At  Rome,  where  we  spent  a  month, 
I  found  myself  once  more  within  the  sphere  of  the  serious  life  of  two 
years  before,  having  many  friends  among  the  Irish  clergy,  who  formed 
so  strong  an  element  at  the  Vatican,  and  I  find  many  entries  in  my 
diary  connected  with  Irish  politics,  some  of  which  are  worth  transcribing 
here. 

"  4th  Nov. —  To  see  Monsignore  Stonor,  who  has  inherited  much  of 
Cardinal  Howard's  position,  being  a  sort  of  diplomatic  go-between  with 
the  Papal  court  as  well  as  having  been  made  an  archbishop.  He  tells 
me  that  Lintorn  Simmons  is  coming  here  on  an  official  mission  to  the 
Vatican.  When  he,  Stonor,  saw  Lord  Salisbury  in  London  this  sum- 
mer, Lord  Salisbury  told  him  that  diplomatic  relations  would  have  to 
be  established  with  the  Pope,  but  that  there  was  such  fear  of  opposition 
from  the  Non-conformists  that  it  would  have  to  be  done  cautiously. 
Rosebery  had  told  him  much  the  same  thing.  Now  the  pretext  is  a 
settlement  of  ecclesiastical  disputes  at  Malta.  This,  Stonor  says,  is 
a  pretext  only,  as  the  disputes  were  settled  some  time  ago  through 
himself.  He  also  told  me  what  happened  between  the  Pope  and  the 
German  Emperor.  There  was  no  rudeness  intended  by  the  Emperor 
nor  offence  taken  by  the  Pope.  An  arrangement  had  been  come  to 
between  the  Emperor  and  Prince  Henry,  that  Prince  Henry  and 
Herbert  Bismarck  should  come  to  the  Vatican  half  an  hour  after  the 
Emperor,  but  owing  to  the  slow  pace  of  the  Emperor's  carriages  Prince 
Henry  arrived  too  soon  by  ten  minutes.  Herbert  Bismarck  thereupon 


28  Cisterna  and  Fogliano  [1889 

made  a  scene,  declaring  that  he  and  Prince  Henry  would  leave  the 
Vatican  if  not  at  once  announced.  They  were  consequently  announced, 
although  the  Pope  had  given  orders  that  he  and  the  Emperor  should  be 
undisturbed  for  half  an  hour,  ten  minutes  before  the  time,  but  the 
Emperor  told  them  to  wait.  Stonor  assures  me  that  this  was  all.  It 
has,  however,  I  fancy  been  agreed  to  hush  up  whatever  happened,  and 
the  Emperor  has  made  whatever  amends  was  required. 

"  $th  Nov. —  Made  a  round  of  visits  with  Stonor,  among  others  to 
the  Embassy.  The  Dufferins  arrived  last  night,  but  we  did  not  see 
them.  With  Bering  [the  first  Secretary],  however,  we  had  some  talk. 
Simmons  is  to  arrive  next  week  and  with  him  as  secretary,  Ross  of 
Bladensburg.  This  will  make  a  storm  in  Ireland,  where  Ross  is  known 
to  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  Papal  Rescript  against  the  Plan  of 
Campaign.  [See  my  '  Land  War  in  Ireland.'] 

"6th  Nov. —  We  breakfasted  at  the  Palazzo  Caetani,  and  went  on 
in  the  afternoon  in  a  storm  of  thunder  and  lightning  with  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  [of  Sermoneta]  and  their  daughter  Giovanella  to  Fogliano. 
Fogliano,  however,  we  were  not  destined  to  reach,  for  the  rain  was 
quite  equatorial,  and  we  stopped  for  the  night  at  Cisterna,  where  the 
Duke  has  a  half-deserted  palace,  and  there  we  are  camped.  The  floods 
on  the  Campagna  were  beyond  belief,  torrents  of  red  water  pouring 
over  the  edges  of  the  railway  cuttings,  and  in  some  places  the  train 
having  to  drive  its  way  against  a  strong  and  deep  current.  Every 
water  course  was  a  raging  flood  and  broad  streams  were  forming 
themselves  rapidly  in  the  fields  and  still  broader  lakes.  At  Villetri 
we  left  the  train  and  took  carriage,  but  stopped  here  as  it  was  thought 
dangerous  to  go  farther.  I  never  in  Europe  saw  such  continuous 
lightning  or  such  rain  over  so  long  a  space  of  time.  It  has  been  like 
the  breaking  of  the  monsoon  in  India.  The  torrent  in  one  of  the 
valleys  gave  one  an  idea  of  what  the  world  may  have  been  in  the  tropic 
age  when  the  great  valleys  were  first  formed. 

"  This  palace  here  at  Cisterna  has  many  remains  of  grandeur,  fresco 
paintings  by  Zucchero,  and  fine  marble  chimney-pieces.  The  weather, 
too,  in  spite  of  the  rain  is  warm,  and  we  are  lodged  comfortably 
enough.  We  play  dominoes  in  the  evening  on  an  old  fire  screen 
propped  on  two  chairs  to  serve  as  table." 

We  went  on  next  morning  with  the  first  light  to  Fogliano,  just  in 
time  to  get  across  the  Pontine  Marshes,  for  the  floods  were  rising  and 
in  one  place  had  already  covered  the  road.  Here  we  spent  four  days 
in  this  the  most  delightful  country  place  in  Italy.  I  have  already  de- 
scribed Fogliano  in  one  of  my  previous  volumes  and  need  not  repeat 
it  here.  We  occupied  our  time  pleasantly  enough  duck  shooting  on 
the  lagoons,  which  lie  between  the  great  oak  forest  and  the  sea,  in 
the  early  mornings,  and  riding  in  the  afternoons  to  visit  the  Duchess's 


1889]  The  Duke  of  Sermoneta  29 

stud,  which  she  has  established  very  successfully  here,  and  for  which  she 
had  bought  a  couple  of  Arab  stallions  a  year  or  two  ago.  The  Duke  much 
busied  with  public  affairs,  and  the  municipal  elections  now  going  on  at 
Rome.  He  was  on  the  committee  of  selection,  and  after  much  telephon- 
ing to  and  from  headquarters  ended  by  sending  in  his  resignation. 
This  was  an  early  stage  of  his  public  career  which  led  him  later  to  the 
mayoralty  of  Rome,  and  later  still  to  office  in  the  Government.  "  The 
Duke,"  I  write,  9th  November,  after  much  talk  on  these  subjects,  "  is 
certainly  a  most  distinguished  man,  not  a  man  of  genius  but  of  very 
superior  talents.  He  has  read  enormously,  philosophy,  science,  his- 
tory, and  can  talk  well  on  most  subjects.  He  is  president  of  the  Italian 
Geographical  Society  and  the  Italian  Alpine  Club,  an  honest  man  in 
public  affairs,  but  disenchanted  with  knowledge  and  doubtful  of  the 
ends  of  life  like  all  the  rest  of  us.  '  Neither  the  moral  law  nor  the 
law  of  beauty,'  he  says,  '  can  be  found  in  nature,  and  without  these  the 
world  must  be  lacking  in  interest.'  He  is  not  religious,  but  supports 
religion  as  being  the  reason  of  these  two  ideas,  at  least  so  I  gather 
from  what  he  has  told  me." 

It  was  in  accordance  with  this  view  of  religion,  and  out  of  politeness 
to  us,  that  on  Sunday  the  loth  it  was  arranged  that  mass  should  be 
said  in  a  little  movable  hut  on  wheels  like  a  bathing  machine,  evidently 
a  new  experiment,  a  talked-of  chapel  not  being  finished  or  apparently 
likely  to  be.  "  The  Duke  is  clearly  a  latitudinarian  though  he  attended 
mass,  and  the  Duchess  enjoys  life  too  much  to  be  very  devote.  There 
were  some  thirty  servants  and  peasant  neighbours  brought  in  and  a 
sprinkling  of  dogs  to  make  up  the  congregation,  which  was  all  out  of 
doors  in  front  of  the  house,  the  celebrant  a  mass  priest  brought  in  from 
a  distance.  Altogether  a  quaint  admixture  of  mediaeval  simplicity 
with  a  nineteenth  century  lack  of  faith,  but  it  is  not  for  me  to  criticize." 
On  our  return  to  Rome  the  same  afternoon,  loth  November,  I  found 
letters  and  newspapers  with  news  from  Egypt.  "  The  Stanley  expedi- 
tion has  come  to  grief  in  Africa,  and  Wadelai  was  really  captured  by 
the  Mahadists  just  as  Osman  Digna  declared  it  to  be  more  than  a  year 
ago.  Stanley  and  Emin  are  now  reported  to  be  together  endeavouring 
to  get  to  the  coast,  but  an  end  will  have  been  put  to  their  filibustering 
projects  of  re-conquest  on  the  Upper  Nile.  The  German,  Peters,  too, 
has  been  knocked  on  the  head  by  the  Somalis,  and  Islam  triumphs  all 
along  the  equatorial  line.  The  German  Emperor,  meanwhile,  is  at 
Constantinople  being  feted  with  all  honour  by  Abdul  Hamid." 

The  news  inspired  me  with  a  fresh  longing  for  the  East,  where  my 
true  heart  lay,  and  hastened  our  departure  for  Egypt,  the  rest  of  our 
time  at  Rome  being  spent  partly,  as  I  have  said,  with  my  old  friends  the 
Irish  priests  in  the  various  colleges  and  monasteries,  partly  with  new 
artistic  acquaintances,  of  whom  there  are  so  many  resident  in  the 


3O  Sir  Evelyn  Baring  at  Cairo  [1890 

ancient  city.  But  I  must  not  linger  over  these  personal  recollections, 
interesting  as  they  are  to  me,  for  they  would  take  up  too  much  space. 
All  I  need  notice  is  that,  calling  again  at  the  Embassy,  I  found  Lord 
Dufferin,  to  my  pleasure,  favourable  to  the  pleading  I  made  that  he 
should  help  if  possible  in  any  decision  there  might  be  in  the  direction 
of  re-establishing  that  free  government  at  Cairo  he  had  promised  the 
Egyptians  in  1883,  and  recalling  Arabi.  On  my  last  day  at  Rome  I 
attended  a  dinner  at  the  Irish  college,  where  I  met  the  Maronite  Arch- 
bishop of  Damascus,  and  where  good  old  Dr.  Kirby,  rector  of  the 
College,  proposed  my  unworthy  health,  and  where  I  was  constrained  to 
speak  at  length  to  the  students  on  the  prospects  of  Home  Rule.  It  was 
my  last  public  utterance  about  Ireland.  On  the  morning  of  the  4th 
we  left  for  Naples,  and  there  took  ship  for  Alexandria,  and  by  the  I2th 
found  ourselves  once  more  at  Sheykh  Obeyd,  where  we  spent  the  rest 
of  the  winter  in  the  purely  Oriental  surroundings  I  have  more  than 
once  described. 

On  the  occasion  of  this  second  visit  to  Egypt  of  1889-90  I  adopted 
a  new  attitude  towards  the  British  occupation  and  Baring,  who  repre- 
sented it  at  Cairo  as  Consul-General  and  British  Resident.  When  I 
had  been  there  the  previous  year  I  had  avoided  all  intercourse  with 
the  Anglo-official  world,  but  now,  on  my  return,  influenced  by  the 
conversation  I  had  had  with  Dufferin  at  Rome  and  thinking  that  I 
might  perhaps  thus  help  on  the  re-establishment  of  a  more  liberal 
regime  at  Cairo,  I  took  occasion  of  an  informal  message  sent  me  that 
he  would  be  glad  to  see  me  to  call  on  Baring,  and  from  that  time 
remained  in  friendly  relations  with  the  Residency,  which  were  not 
without  their  advantage  in  a  public  way.  In  business  matters  I  found 
Sir  Evelyn  a  pleasant  man  to  deal  with.  He  was  quick  to  understand 
a  case,  and  straightforward  in  his  replies,  willing  always  to  listen  to 
arguments,  however  opposed  to  his  own  opinions,  and  with  nothing  of 
the  conventional  insincerities  of  diplomacy.  It  is  to  this,  no  doubt,  that 
he  owed  his  success  in  converting  to  his  view  the  many  English  Radical 
M.P.'s  who,  arriving  at  Cairo  with  the  idea  of  hastening  on  the  evacua- 
tion, left  it  persuaded  that  the  proposal  was  impossible  or  at  least 
premature,  and  that  the  Occupation  must  be  maintained. 

"  I2th  Jan. —  Yesterday  I  called  by  appointment  on  Sir  Evelyn 
Baring.  I  had  not  done  so  since  our  meeting  in  1883,  but  it  came  about 
in  this  wise.  When  Prince  Wagram  (he  had  followed  us  to  Egypt  at 
the  end  of  the  year)  was  here  a  fortnight  ago  he  gave  me  a  kind  of 
informal  message  from  Baring  to  the  effect  that  he  would  be  pleased 
if  I  came  to  see  him.  At  the  time  I  was  not  quite  sure  how  to  respond 
to  this,  and  I  delayed  taking  any  action,  but  last  Sunday  I  received  a 
visit  from  Mohammed  el  Moelhi,  who  gave  me  news  of  how  things 
were  going  politically.  He  assured  me  that  people  were  becoming 


1890]  /  Call  on  Baring  31 

more  reconciled  to  the  state  of  affairs,  that  Riaz  was  allowing  rather 
more  personal  liberty,  and  that  Tewfik  had  retired  altogether  from 
political  action.  Nearly  all  the  exiles  had  been  allowed  to  return,  and 
Mohammed  Abdu  had  been  appointed  judge  at  Benha.  Under  the 
circumstances  he  strongly  advised  me  in  Arabi's  interest  to  respond 
to  Baring's  advance.  He  said  it  would  increase  my  opportunities  of 
influence,  for  now  people  were  afraid  to  come  to  me  for  fear  of 
Baring's  displeasure.  He  did  not  think  that  Riaz  was  hostile,  though 
the  Khedive  doubtless  was.  The  Khedive,  however,  was  malleable,  and 
if  he  saw  that  Baring  was  friends  with  me  he  would  think  it  safest  to 
follow  suit.  I  believed  this  to  be  sound  advice,  and  I  consequently 
wrote  a  note  to  Baring  saying  that  I  had  received  this  informal  message 
from  Wagram  and  asking  when  I  could  see  him.  He  replied  very 
politely  and  so  my  visit  was  arranged. 

"  I  found  Baring  at  two  in  his  study,  and  stayed  with  him  for  about 
half  an  hour.  People  say  that  he  is  stiff  and  ill-mannered.  I  did 
not  find  him  so.  On  the  contrary  he  was  courteous  and  kindly.  We 
spoke  pretty  frankly  about  things.  I  said  I  had  not  called  before  be- 
cause I  was  not  sure  whether  he  would  wish  to  see  me.  He  replied 
that  the  only  thing  he  had  thought  unfair  in  our  political  quarrel  was 
Randolph  Churchill's  having  accused  him  in  the  House  of  Commons  of 
having  attacked  me  through  my  property  in  Egypt ;  he  had  not  been 
there  to  answer  him,  and  he  thought  it  unfair ;  as  a  fact  he  had  entirely 
forgotten  the  existence  of  my  property,  and  he  certainly  had  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  proceedings  taken  against  me  concerning  it.  I 
answered  that  to  the  best  of  my  recollection  I  had  never  supposed  him 
to  have  intervened  personally  in  the  affair,  and  that  it  was  doubtless  the 
Khedive's  doing.  Randolph  had,  moreover,  exceeded  my  instructions 
in  pushing  the  case  as  far  as  he  had  done.  We  did  not  discuss  this 
long.  I  told  him  the  Khedive  had  had  me  spied  upon,  and  he  said  it 
was  natural  his  Highness  should  not  be  very  friendly  to  me,  and  should 
want  to  know  what  I  was  doing  in  Egypt,  but  the  Khedive  had  not 
spoken  to  him  about  me  for  a  long  while. 

"  We  then  went  on  to  the  state  of  the  country,  and  I  told  him  I 
thought  things  were  going  better  now  he  had  got  rid  of  Nubar  and  was 
working  with  a  Mohammedan  Ministry.  He  said  the  Nubar  Ministry 
was  a  mistake,  but  the  difficulty  is  to  get  Mohammedans  who  are  cap- 
able of  the  work.  They  are  either  of  the  old-fashioned  sort  who  will 
hear  of  no  improvement,  or  else  young  fellows  who  take  some  modern 
European  plan,  and  wish  to  pitchfork  it  into  Egypt  whether  it  is  suitable 
or  not.  I  said  that  as  to  that  it  was  just  Arabi's  merit  that  he  stood 
between  these  two  extremes.  Arabi  knew  nothing  of  Europe,  but 
wanted  to  improve  on  Oriental  lines.  I  mentioned  that  I  had  heard 
Mohammed  Abdu  had  returned  and  received  an  appointment,  and  he 


32  Baring  on  Arabi  [1890 

gave  the  Sheykh  a  high  character,  and  said  that  nearly  all  the  exiles 
were  now  recalled.  I  told  him  that  I  hoped  the  amnesty  would  be 
general  and  would  include  Arabi  and  the  other  exiles  who  are  in 
Ceylon.  To  this  he  demurred,  and  said  that  Arabi,  having  made  an 
unsuccessful  revolution  had  to  pay  the  penalty,  '  not,  however,'  he 
added,  '  that  I  have  ever  accepted  the  theory  that  his  was  a  military 
revolt,  but  it  was  unsuccessful.'  '  On  the  contrary,'  I  said,  '  it  was 
altogether  successful,  except  for  the  British  Army.'  '  That,'  he  said, 
'  was  one  of  the  elements  he  should  have  reckoned  with ' ;  and  I  '  a 
British  army  of  20,000  men  is  too  strong  an  element  for  any  Oriental 
calculation.' 

"  He  then  went  on  to  talk  of  practical  improvements  and  said  he  was 
pleased  that  I  had  recognized  these,  but  it  would  be  necessary  for 
many  years  to  come  to  have  some  European  guidance,  and  he  believed 
English  guidance  to  be  better  than  French  or  any  other.  Lastly,  we 
discussed  agricultural  methods  and  a  school  of  agriculture  which  was 
being  founded,  and  agreed  that  schools  of  this  sort  were  a  doubtful 
benefit.  [N.B. —  The  school  in  question  which  had  been  started  under 
a  Scotchman  proved  a  comical  failure,  the  professors  after  several 
years  of  experiments  having  had  to  call  in  their  fellah  neighbours  to 
show  them  how  crops  could  be  grown  successfully.]  We  parted  on 
cordial  terms,  and  he  invited  Anne  and  me  to  luncheon  for  to-day.  I 
declined  as  I  do  not  wish  to  go  into  town  again,  but  I  accepted  for 
Anne,  and  so  she  and  Judith  are  to  go  in  there  this  morning.  I  trust 
this  may  all  be  for  the  best. 

"  I  have  been  reading  Gordon's  '  Letters  to  his  Sister,'  and  find 
them  very  consoling  in  their  resignation  to  Providence ;  his  doctrine  is 
entirely  Mohammedan." 

This  extract  has  its  importance  as  showing  in  connection  with  other 
extracts  of  a  later  date  that  the  difficulty  about  recalling  Arabi,  which 
was  the  essential  condition  of  any  true  intention  of  restoring  the  National 
Party  in  Egypt,  resided  not  in  the  Khedive  only  but  in  Lord  Cromer. 
The  following,  too,  will  have  its  interest  as  indicating  perhaps  the 
point  of  departure  taken  by  him  so  markedly  at  a  later  date  in  Arabian 
affairs. 

"  2Oth  Feb. —  Shahir  Ibn  Nassar,  son  of  the  chief  Sheykh  of  the 
Dhaheri  Harb  tribe  of  Hedjaz  came  to  Sheykh  Obeyd  on  the  25th  of 
January  with  his  cousin  Seyid  and  a  friend,  Ali,  from  Mecca.  Shahir 
is  a  pleasing  young  man  and  we  invited  him  to  stay  with  us,  and  he 
has  been  ever  since  at  Sheykh  Obeyd.  He  came  to  Cairo  to  claim  a 
debt  of  £350  due  to  his  tribe  for  the  hire  of  camels  supplied  to  the  Haj 
last  year,  and  was  very  angry  because  Riaz  and  the  Khedive  had 
refused  to  see  him  notwithstanding  his  having  brought  letters,  also 
the  money  had  been  refused  him,  and  the  Khedive  had  refused  his  gift 


1890]  Shdhir  Ibn  Nassdr  33 

of  a  delul.  After  waiting  in  ante-rooms  all  this  month  he  made  up  his 
mind  to  go  back  to  his  people,  who  have  it  in  their  power  to  block  the 
pilgrim  road,  or  at  least  to  make  things  very  uncomfortable  for  the 
pilgrims,  but  I  proposed  to  him  as  a  last  resource  to  see  Baring.  This 
he  did  on  Tuesday,  I  having  spoken  about  him  the  day  before  to  Baring 
when  I  lunched  at  the  Residency.  Baring  received  him,  by  Zeyd's 
account  who  went  with  him,  with  all  honour  and  sent  at  once  for 
Riaz  and  told  him  Shahir  was  under  his  protection,  and  he  must  see 
justice  done.  Riaz  then  went  to  the  Khedive,  who  already  knew  of 
Shahir's  being  with  me,  and  they  sent  Thabit  Pasha  to  Shahir  and  an- 
other Pasha  Abderrahman,  and  all  together  went  to  the  Emir  el  Haj 
and  gave  him  a  wigging  and  made  him  acknowledge  the  debt.  Shahir 
is  to  have  his  money  in  a  few  days,  and  is,  of  course,  highly  delighted. 
He  has  given  me  the  delul,  which  is  rather  a  white  elephant  as  I  shall 
have  to  give  him  a  present  in  exchange." 

This  Shahir  was  a  most  interesting  man,  being  a  quite  wild  Bedouin, 
and  his  father,  the  chief  Sheykh  of  the  most  important  tribe  between 
Mecca  and  Medina,  the  hereditary  occupants  of  the  mountain  passes 
through  which  the  pilgrimage  yearly  has  to  pass.  From  very  early 
times  they  have  been  subsidized  by  the  Caliphs  and  Sultans  who  have 
been  responsible  for  the  safe  conduct  of  the  pilgrims  to  grant  a  free 
passage,  but  of  late  years  the  subsidy  had  remained  unpaid  through 
the  dishonesty  of  the  agents  entrusted  with  its  delivery,  a  neglect  which 
brought  about  much  trouble,  and  occasionally  loss  of  life,  through  the 
hostility  of  the  tribe.  Shahir  had  had  little  dealing  with  civilization, 
even  that  of  Mecca,  and  found  himself  more  at  home  with  us  than  at 
Cairo,  sharing  Zeyd's  tent  on  the  desert  edge  outside  our  garden  wall. 
He  was  a  wonderful  camel-rider,  performing  strange  feats  of  agility 
with  his  delul,  but  was  unable  to  ride  a  horse,  for  the  Harb  are  not 
horse  owners,  at  least  not  that  section  of  the  tribe  which  inhabits  the 
Hedjaz.  When  he  left  us  to  return  to  his  home  by  sea  from  Suez,  his 
delul,  an  Udeyhah,  remained  with  me,  I  giving  him  in  exchange  £50,  a 
very  full  price,  for  the  expense  of  his  journey. 

Another  matter  which  I  took  up  that  winter  with  Lord  Cromer  was 
one  that  lay  at  the  root  of  all  sound  progress  in  Egypt,  as  it  does 
wherever  a  Mohammedan  population  finds  itself  subjected  to  a  Christian 
government,  that  of  its  demoralization  by  drink.  I  am  no  fanatic  on 
the  question  of  drink  in  Europe,  where  the  use  of  wine  and  strong 
drinks  stands  in  no  direct  opposition,  except  by  its  abuse,  to  morals. 
But  in  Mohammedan  lands  the  case  is  entirely  different.  There  the 
abstention  from  wine  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  moral  code,  and 
those  who  transgress  on  this  point  become  reprobate  in  their  own  eyes, 
and  lose  all  sense  of  decency  and  decorum.  This  was  beginning  to 
show  itself  markedly  in  Egypt  as  a  consequence  of  the  establishment 


34  The  Drink  Question  in  Egypt  [1890 

of  English  rule.     It  had  been  against  the  spread  of  drink  as  much  as 
anything  that  the  revolution  of  1881  had  acquired  its  moral  strength  in 
public  opinion  and,  with  the  suppression  of  the  Nationalists  after  Tel- 
el-Kebir,  and  the  reinstatement  of  European  control,  the  evil  had  re- 
turned in  double  force.     It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  we  had  in- 
tervened in  Egypt  to  reinstate  the  Greek  drink  sellers,  who  combined 
it  with  moneylending  in  the  villages  of  the  Delta.     The  country  district 
where  I  had  my  home  was  a  good  instance  of  how  the  evil  worked. 
The  villages  in  our  immediate  neighbourhood  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  were 
inhabited  entirely  by  Mohammedans ;  in  the  whole  of  them  there  were 
not  half-a-dozen  Copts  or  Christians  of  any  sect  and  there  was  no 
demand  whatever  for  drink  in  any  of  them.     On  my  return  there, 
however,  in  this  year  I  found  that  a  small  local  railway  had  been 
opened,  joining  these  with  Cairo,  and  that  at  each  station  on  the  line 
as  the  first  sign  of  the  coming  civilization  a  drink  shop  had  been  estab- 
lished, kept  by  a  Greek  moneylender  in  the  interest  of  his  financial 
business.     It  was  calculated  that  if  the  fellahin  could  be  tempted  inside 
his  doors  to  taste  the  forbidden  liquor  the  rest  of  his  morality  would 
soon  give  way,  and  with  it  his  independence  of  borrowing.     Against 
this  coming  evil  the  respectable  heads  of  the  villages  were  doing  their 
best  to  make  opposition,  and  one  morning  they  called  on  me  to  advise 
what  they  should  do.     I  advised  them  to  make  formal  protest  to  the 
Government,  and  offered  if  they  should  fail  in  obtaining  a  favourable 
answer,  to  plead  their  cause  with  Baring,  who  alone  had  it  in  his  power 
to  put  pressure  not  so  much  on  the  Khedivial  officials  as  on  the  Greek 
Consulate.     The  Greek  drink-sellers  were  most  of  them  Hellenic  sub- 
jects, and  as  such  protected  by  the  international  agreements  known  as 
the  Capitulations  against  interference  in  their  trade  by  the  Khedivial 
police,  and  the  privileges  thus  enjoyed  by  them  had  been  re-established 
in  full  force  with  the  overthrow  of  the  National  Government,  and  it 
rested  with  Baring,  who  exercised  all  real  power,  to  decide  to  what 
extent  the  privileges  should  be  permitted  to  go.     The  whole  question 
of  the  drink  shops  might,  if  he  was  willing,  be  treated  as  a  police  matter 
to  be  dealt  with  as  a  common  nuisance,  and  it  would  not  have  been 
possible  for  the  Greek  Consul-General  to  make  a  serious  question  of 
it  if  Baring  should  insist.     The  secret  reason,  however,  of  the  protection 
extended  to  them  at  the  Consulate  was,  that  they  bought  their  immunity 
there  in  part  with  cash  paid  down,  in  part  with  threats  of  complaints  laid 
against  the  Consul-General  at  Athens,  a  form  of  black-mailing  much  in 
vogue  amongst  the  Greeks. 

"  25//1  March. —  Saw  Sir  Evelyn  Baring  on  the  drink  question,  es- 
pecially with  regard  to  our  being  threatened  here  at  Sheykh  Obeyd. 
I  told  him  of  the  deputation  which  had  come  to  me  from  Merj  and 
Kafr  el  Shorafa  (in  protest  against  the  drink  shops  being  open  in  those 


1890]  Village  Protests  on  Drink  35 

villages  in  connection  with  the  new  railway),  and  he  expressed  his 
general  sympathy  and  desire  to  help  in  stopping  the  spread  of  drink 
in  Egypt,  but  said  it  was  a  large  question,  and  a  question  of  law;  he 
would  see  Riaz  (the  Prime  Minister),  and  find  out  how  the  law  was; 
Riaz  was  very  hostile  to  the  Greeks,  and  so  would  be  likely  to  do  what 
he  could.  He  would  let  me  know  the  result,  and  then,  if  there  was  a 
possibility,  the  inhabitants  of  Merj  and  the  other  villages  should  pro- 
test, and  he  would  do  all  in  his  power  to  help  them. 

"  6th  April. —  Called  again  on  Baring  to  show  him  the  petition  against 
the  drink  shops.  It  had  been  signed  by  seventy-three  of  the  principal 
Sheykhs  and  notables  of  Merj,  Kafr  el  Jamus,  Kafr  el  Shorafa,  and 
Birket  el  Haj,  also  by  Salaam  Abu  Shedid  and  Hassan  Abu  Tawil, 
Sheykhs  from  the  Howeytat  and  Aiaideh  tribes.  He  seemed  pleased 
with  it,  and  I  left  him  a  translation,  and  we  discussed  the  question 
together  and  with  Tigrane  Pasha,  who  had  come  in  and  whom  Baring 
sent  off  at  once  with  the  original  to  Riaz.  Tigrane  [he  was  the 
Armenian  Under-Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs]  declared  that  the  case 
could  be  dealt  with  without  infringing  upon  National  rights.  I  argued 
strongly  against  its  being  treated  fiscally,  but  rather  as  a  matter  of 
police  and  public  morals.  In  this  Tigrane  agreed  with  me,  and  Baring 
said  he  would  do  all  in  his  power  to  stop  the  spread  of  the  drink  shops, 
if  according  to  the  ruling  of  the  International  Courts,  and  if  not,  he 
would  submit  a  modification  of  the  law  to  the  Powers.  We  discussed 
also  several  other  cases,  especially  that  of  the  Government  salt  tax,  an 
imposition  which  pressed  hardly  upon  the  people,  and  that  of  certain 
Bedouins  imprisoned  at  Ghizeh.  He  showed  himself  anxious  to  in- 
tervene in  all  these  matters,  sent  for  the  persons  responsible,  and 
promised  to  see  into  the  cases.  A  good  morning's  work." 

The  above  will  give  some  idea  of  the  practical  way  in  which  Lord 
Cromer  did  the  work  of  administration  at  Cairo,  and  of  the  kind  of 
questions  I  was  able  to  bring  before  him.  That  he  had  the  reformation 
of  abuses  at  that  date,  1890,  the  period  of  his  first  and  best  practical 
energies,  much  at  heart,  is  certain,  nor  did  I  then  suspect  him  of 
working,  as  he  did  so  flagrantly  later,  less  for  the  good  of  Egypt  than 
in  English  political  and  financial  interests.  It  is,  however,  necessary 
to  remark  that,  in  spite  of  his  promises  of  assistance  and  the  undoubted 
good  faith  of  Riaz  Pasha  on  the  drink  question,  nothing  at  all  was 
ever  done  to  protect  these  villages  from  the  Greek  intruders,  who  ply 
their  trade  in  them  unchecked  to  the  present  day.  Their  case  was  as 
strong  a  one  as  could  well  have  been  brought  forward,  for  it  was  one 
where  the  demand  for  alcohol  needed  to  be  created  in  the  midst  of  a 
totally  abstaining  population,  and  it  worked  the  ill  results  we  foresaw. 
The  drink  shops  were  put  under  regulations  good  enough  in  their  way, 
but  the  sale  was  not  suppressed,  and  like  many  another  regulation  in 


36  Talks  with  Zeyd  [1890 

Egypt  where  no  advantage  of  revenue  was  concerned,  they  were  not 
insisted  on ;  energy  in  introducing  them,  however  sincere  at  the  outset, 
soon  slackened,  and  the  regulations  became  a  dead  letter. 

I  will  add  to  this,  because  they  are  amusing,  a  couple  of  extracts  from 
my  diary,  conversations  I  put  down  in  it,  with  Zeyd,  my  Bedouin  horse 
master,  of  the  Muteyr  tribe  in  Nejd,  as  I  was  riding  with  him  on  two 
occasions  on  the  desert  edge  in  the  evening  that  winter.  They  have  an 
interest  worth  preserving,  as  they  show  the  way  the  Arabs  of  Arabia 
think  in  contrast  to  the  Egyptian  fellahin  whom  they  come  in  contact 
with  during  their  visits  to  Cairo,  a  contrast  which  has  a  significance  in 
view  of  the  political  developments  we  have  witnessed  in  these  last 
years. 

"  Zeyd.  The  fellahin  are  a  timid  folk,  if  they  see  a  cat  cross  their 
path  after  dark  they  think  it  an  afrit,  they  believe  in  all  manner  of 
foolish  things. 

"/.     What  then?    Are  there  no  afrits  in  Nejd? 

"  Zeyd.  Wallah !  The  belief  in  afrits  is  foolishness.  There  are  no 
afrits,  neither  in  Nejd  nor  here.  But  the  fellahin  have  no  heart.  They 
are  without  blood.  They  are  afraid. 

"I.    You  are  a  philosopher.     Do  all  in  Nejd  think  like  you? 

"Zeyd.  The  men  of  Nejd  have  brave  hearts.  They  are  used  to 
being  alone.  They  journey  alone  through  the  desert,  ten  days,  twenty 
days,  forty  days  perhaps.  They  know  nothing  of  afrits.  There  is  none 
other  but  God. 

"I.    Truly  none.     But  do  they  see  nothing? 

"  Zeyd.  They  fear  nothing.  There  is  of  course  Shaitan,  who  some- 
times appears  to  them  in  the  likeness  of  a  goat  or  a  cow.  But  they  are 
not  afraid.  He  does  not  harm  them. 

"I.     And  do  they  speak  to  him? 

"Zeyd.  Shaitan  will  sometimes  journey  with  them  in  disguise. 
There  was  once  a  man  of  Bereydah  who  was  riding  his  delul  alone  in  a 
storm.  There  was  lightning  amid  the  darkness.  He  heard  a  voice  in 
front  of  him  asking  what  he  was  doing  there  in  such  tempestuous 
weather,  and  if  he  was  not  afraid.  A  flash  revealed  to  him  the  figure 
of  a  sheep  set  on  the  neck  of  his  camel.  It  was  Shaitan,  who  was 
speaking  to  frighten  the  man.  The  man,  however,  put  out  his  hand 
and  caught  the  sheep  by  the  fleece,  saying,  '  I  know  you  are  a  sheep  by 
your  wool.'  But  Shaitan  answered,  '  And  you.  I  know  you  are  a 
sheep  by  your  wits ! '  and  he  slid  down  the  camel's  neck  to  the  ground 
and  disappeared. 

"  I.    Yet  you  do  not  believe  in  afrits. 

"  Zeyd.     No.     That  is  a  vulgar  superstition. 

*  *  *  * 

"/.    What  is  this  to  the  right  of  us?    A  tomb? 


1890]  The  Philosophy  of  Superstition  37 

"  Zeyd.  Ay,  verily.  The  tomb  of  a  saint.  The  fellahin  have  a 
hundred  thousand  saints.  They  are  a  credulous  people.  They  kill 
sheep  for  Abu  Seriyeh  still,  though  he  has  been  dead  a  thousand  years. 

"  /.  And  we,  too,  killed  a  sheep  when  we  went  on  the  pilgrimage  to 
Abu  Seriyeh  three  years  ago. 

"  Zeyd.  Yes,  to  bring  a  blessing  on  your  camels.  And  one  of  your 
camels  died  within  the  year.  How  can  a  Sheykh,  a  holy  man  who  has 
been  dead  so  long,  help  any  one,  beast  or  man  ? 

"I.     This,  too,  is  philosophy. 

"  Zeyd.  No.  It  is  truth.  An  uncle  or  a  grandfather,  I  can  under- 
stand that  one  should  give  them  a  sheep,  but  not  to  Abu  Seriyeh.  This 
land  is  full  of  the  tombs  of  holy  men.  The  fellahin  are  a  credulous 

people. 

*  *  *  * 

"  Zeyd.  This  road  from  Kaf r  el  Shoraf  a  to  the  bridge,  how  often 
I  used  to  think  of  it  when  I  was  journeying  from  Syria  with!  the 
Seglawi  horse,  the  grey  Seglawi,  and  the  Jilfa  mare.  I  used  to  ask 
of  God  that  he  would  grant  me  this,  that  I  might  ride  along  the  sand 
just  here  with  them  in  safety.  And  see,  I  arrived  with  them  and  rode 
along  this  very  road. 

"/.     Thank  God. 

"  Zeyd.  Yes,  thank  God.  There  is  no  word  it  does  one  more  good 
to  say  than  this,  '  thank  God,'  when  a  danger  is  past.  El  harndu  I'lllah; 

elhamdull'Illah!" 

*  *  *  * 

Another  conversation  of  nearly  the  same  date  has  the  additional 
interest  that  it  concerns  a  mission  I  had  sent  him  on  the  year  before,  to 
purchase  a  stallion  for  me  from  the  Anazeh  in  Northern  Arabia. 

"  Zeyd.  I  will  tell  you  how  I  bought  the  Seglawi  [this  was  the 
stallion  '  Azrek,*  see  General  Stud  Book] .  I  did  not,  of  course,  tell 
them  the  truth,  that  I  was  the  servant  of  the  Bey  (meaning  me). 
There  is  no  shame  in  this.  It  is  policy  (siasa).  I  am  a  master  of 
policy.  I  made  a  deceit.  I  said  to  them  that  I  was  of  the  Agheylat, 
looking  for  horses  for  India,  horses  from  the  north  and  tall  ones,  for 
those  are  the  horses  that  bring  most  price  in  India.  What  did  I  want 
with  the  pure  bred  ?  I  wanted  to  make  money.  And  so  I  went  to  the 
Sebaa.  I  alighted  at  Ibn  ed  Derri's  tent,  as  it  were  by  accident.  But 
I  made  a  mistake.  It  was  not  the  tent  of  Mishlab  Ibn  ed  Derri,  but 
of  his  brother  Fulan  (the  name  Fulan  is  used  as  we  say  So-and-So). 
There  are  four  brothers.  Fulan  and  Fulan  and  Fulan  and  Mishlab. 
Mishlab  was  the  owner  of  the  Seglawi.  I  stayed  there  for  three  days, 
without  speaking  of  the  Seglawi.  The  horse  was  at  pasture  and  I 
did  not  see  him.  On  the  fourth  day  came  Mishlab  to  breakfast  with 
his  brother,  and  they  killed  a  lamb  —  and  behold  the  Seglawi  was  with 


38  Zeyd  Purchases  a  Horse  [1890 

him  —  he  did  not  bring  him  to  sell,  but,  as  the  custom  is  with  strangers, 
that  I  might  see  him.  He  stood  tethered  outside  the  tent,  but  I  did 
not  even  turn  his  way.  Only  lifting  up  my  eyes  stealthily,  I  saw  him, 
and  the  sight  of  his  forehead  and  of  his  eyes  gave  me  joy.  For  you 
know  the  Seglawi's  face  is  of  those  which,  if  a  man,  a  sorrowful  man, 
sees,  he  needs  must  rejoice.  Only  it  made  my  heart  beat  terribly,  and 
I  said  to  myself,  '  Zeyd  must  never  more  return  to  the  Bey  —  he  must 
die  —  if  he  do  not  obtain  that  horse.'  Then,  after  we  had  eaten,  I 
arose  as  one  who  wishes  to  go  outside  for  a  private  purpose;  and  I 
walked  past  the  Seglawi  with  my  face  to  the  ground  as  though  I  did 
not  see  him,  and  hardly  putting  one  foot  before  the  other,  like  a  thief. 
And  when  I  returned  Mishlab  was  alone  with  his  son  Sakr  in  the 
tent,  and  we  talked  of  the  buying  of  horses.  And  I  told  them  of  my 
desire  of  tall  horses  for  the  Indian  market. 

"  And  after  a  while  I  said  to  the  father  that  I  had  something  that  I 
should  wish  to  speak  to  him  of  in  private  —  for  I  knew  that  his  son 
would  not  consent  to  the  sale,  seeing  that  it  was  he  who  received  the 
money  of  the  Arabs  when  their  mares  were  served,  and  I  knew,  too, 
that  the  father  was  displeased  at  this.  All  that  is  customary  is  that 
those  who  bring  mares  should  also  bring  flour  for  the  stallion,  and  it 
may  be  a  kiswah  (a  complimentary  robe),  but  not  money.  But  Sakr 
had  taken  money,  to  his  father's  displeasure.  So  I  said  to  the  young 
man,  when  we  had  gone  outside,  '  On  Salameh,  stay  you  here  on  one 
side,  for  I  have  something  to  speak  of  with  your  father.  And  you  may 
watch  us,  and,  if  you  see  me  strike  your  father,  then  come  to  his  as- 
sistance, but  if  I  do  not  raise  my  hand  to  him,  then  wait  till  we  have 
finished,  for  it  is  not  necessary  you  should  hear.'  And  to  my  friend 
who  was  with  me,  I  told  him  to  take  his  spear,  and  sent  him  on  another 
errand  to  fetch  my  dromedary. 

"  Then  when  we  were  alone,  I  said  to  Mishlab :  '  O  Mishlab,  it  is 
time  I  went  on  my  business,  for  I  am  engaged  in  the  purchase  of  horses. 
But  before  I  go  I  would  see  your  horse.  I  cannot  buy  him,  for  I  am 
looking  only  for  horses  from  the  North  at  a  low  price,  but  yours,  the 
Seglawi,  would  I  see.  For  I  am  of  the  Muteyr  and  you  are  of  the 
Sebaa,  and  I  am  a  master  of  fortune  (sahib  el  bukht),  and  you  are  a 
master  of  fortune,  and  it  would  be  a  shame  that  I  did  not  name  a  price 
or  put  a  value  on  him,  for  otherwise,  you  might  think  that  I  did  not 
know  his  worth.'  And  Mishlab  said,  '  So  be  it.'  And  I  named  £100, 
as  if  it  were  a  great  price.  And  when  I  had  named  it,  I  saw  that 
Mishlab  put  his  hand  under  his  kefiyeh  to  scratch  his  head  and  stroke 
his  beard.  And  at  last  he  spoke :  '  Nay,  it  would  be  a  sin.'  And  I 
pressed  him,  for  I  saw  by  his  manner  that  he  was  in  doubt,  and  I 
could  hardly  believe  in  my  fortune  that  there  should  be  a  hope  of  his 
consenting.  And  again  my  heart  beat  so  that  you  might  hear  it.  And 


1890]  Zeyd  Rides  Away  39 

at  last  I  said,  as  if  rising  to  go,  '  There  shall  be  another  ten  added  to 
the  hundred.'  And  I  gave  him  my  hand,  and  he  gave  me  his  hand. 
And  I  said,  '  O  Mishlab,  listen.  The  Seglawi  is  the  Seglawi,  and  the 
men  of  the  tribe  send  their  mares  to  you  on  his  account.  But  he  is 
but  flesh  and  blood,  and  a  shot  might  destroy  him,  and  then  where 
would  be  the  £no?'  And  he  said,  'If  it  were  not  for  my  son's  ill 
doing,  I  would  not  do  it.  And  I  do  not  want  money,  for  God  has 
blessed  me  with  many  camels  and  I  have  all  I  need.  But  I  fear  that 
Sakr  will  bring  disgrace  on  me,  for  he  takes  money  for  the  mares, 
which  thing  is  forbidden;  and  I  fear  lest  my  good  fortune  should 
fail  me.' 

"  And  so  it  was  settled  in  that  one  talking,  and  immediately  I  called 
for  my  delul,  and  having  given  him  the  advance  money  (arbun},  I 
begged  him  to  send  his  son  with  me  to  Aleppo  to  receive  the  full  price. 
And  I  mounted  in  haste,  fearing  that  the  rest  would  return  and  would 
make  him  change  his  mind." 


CHAPTER  III 

BRIGANDAGE   IN    EGYPT 

The  summer  of  1890  I  spent  in  large  part  at  Paris  with  Lytton  at 
the  Embassy,  and  was  one  of  the  most  delightful  in  my  experience,  but 
it  contained  little  of  a  political  nature  or  that  can  be  repeated  here. 
Our  talks  were  mainly  of  literature,  and  more  especially  of  dramatic 
literature,  on  which  he  was  just  then  engaged,  the  detail  of  his  official 
work  being  left  principally  to  his  staff,  though  I  would  not  be  under- 
stood to  mean  that  he  was  a  mere  figurehead.  As  Ambassador,  on  the 
contrary,  his  political  influence  at  Paris  was  greater  than  that  of  his 
predecessor,  Lord  Lyons.  With  all  the  latter's  dignity  and  discretion 
and  solid  good  sense,  he  had  never  succeeded  in  obtaining  any  kind  of 
popularity,  and  in  his  time  the  relations  between  France  and  England 
had  become  the  reverse  of  cordial.  Lytton,  however,  by  the  very 
qualities  which  had  proved  his  defects  when  in  India,  had  obtained  an 
immediate  personal  success  at  Paris,  and  had  in  large  measure  restored 
the  international  good  feeling.  His  literary  Bohemianism  and  lack  of 
pomposity,  his  devotion  to  the  stage,  his  ready  patronage  of  artists, 
actors,  and  those  litterateurs  who  count  for  so  much  in  Paris  journal- 
ism, had  been  a  passport  for  him  to  favour  with  the  Press,  and  through 
the  Press  to  public  opinion.  Lytton  was  by  taste  a  Bohemian,  and 
Paris,  which  is  also  so  largely  Bohemian,  recognized  him  as  a  brother 
artist.  It  was  impossible  to  regard  him  as  representative  of  the 
morgue  britannique,  of  which  not  only  Lord  Lyons  but  Lord  Cowley 
before  him  had  been  such  notable  examples.  Treated  with  a  light 
hand,  many  a  difficult  question  was  in  his  time  easily  circumvented,  if 
not  permanently  solved,  and  this  at  the  expense  of  no  real  dignity.  It 
was  felt  that  he  wished  well  to  Frenchmen  and  French  views  of  life, 
and  that  was  sufficient. 

In  the  intervals  of  my  Paris  visits  I  find  notices  of  my  life  in  Eng- 
land, showing  that  I,  too,  had  learned  to  take  life  more  lightly  than  in 
previous  years.  I  busied  myself  not  at  all  with  parliamentary  politics, 
and  even  about  Ireland  I  ceased  to  take  any  absorbing  interest.  The 
prospects  of  Home  Rule  were  better  assured  just  then  in  all  appearance 
than  they  had  been  since  Gladstone's  defeat  in  1886.  The  result  of  the 
great  "  Times  "  prosecution  had  been  a  notable  victory  for  the  National- 

40 


1890]  The  Crabbet  Club  41 

ists,  and  had  re-established  Parnell's  character  as  a  responsible  states- 
man at  a  higher  point  than  ever  before  in  English  eyes,  so  that  it  was 
confidently  expected  that  at  the  next  general  election  Gladstone  would 
be  returned  to  power  with  a  majority  sufficient  to  overcome  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  carry  his  Home  Rule  Bill  into  law. 
It  was,  therefore,  with  a  free  conscience  that  I  led  an  idle  life  at  home, 
writing  my  verses  and  enjoying  social  pleasures  in  the  company  of  my 
friends.  It  was  in  that  summer  that  the  Crabbet  Club,  which  was  to 
acquire  a  certain  social  celebrity,  was  established  on  a  footing  which 
was  to  gain  for  it  a  character  almost  of  importance.  It  will  not  be 
out  of  place,  seeing  that  our  memoir  writers  of  the  day  have  included 
it,  or  rather  have  not  left  it  unnoticed  in  their  recollections,  if  I  say  a 
few  words  here  as  to  what  it  really  was. 

The  Crabbet  Club  was  in  its  origin  a  purely  convivial  gathering, 
unambitious  of  any  literary  aim.  It  began  in  this  way :  When  George, 
Lord  Pembroke  (the  i3th  Earl)  came  of  age  in  1871,  having  been  a 
very  popular  boy  at  Eton,  with  many  school  friends,  and  afterwards  at 
Oxford,  he  thought  it  would  be  amusing  to  continue  in  some  measure 
the  life  they  had  led  by  having  them  to  stay  with  him  once  or  twice 
every  summer  at  Wilton,  for  a  day  or  two  at  a  time,  to  play  cricket, 
and  row  on  the  river,  and  otherwise  divert  themselves,  and  they  took 
the  name  of  the  "  Wilton,"  or  "  Wagger  "  Club,  and  it  proved  a  great 
success.  In  1876,  though  much  older  than  the  rest  of  the  members,  I 
was  asked  to  join  it  as  one  who  had  known  the  Herberts  from  their 
school  days.  Pembroke  was  staying  with  me  at  Crabbet,  and  his  two 
brothers  and  their  sister  Gladys  (afterwards  Lady  Ripon),  and  several 
of  their  friends,  and  several  of  mine,  and  I  drove  them  all  to  Epsom 
for  the  Derby  ( Silvio's  year) ,  and  we  had  a  cricket  match  and  a  lawn 
tennis  handicap  (lawn  tennis  was  in  the  process  of  being  invented,  and 
we  played  on  a  court  20  feet  longer  than  what  afterwards  became  the 
regulation  length),  and  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  I  joined  the  club. 
The  party  at  Crabbet  had  proved  such  a  success  that  the  next  year  it 
was  proposed  that  the  club  should  make  one  of  its  regular  meetings 
there,  and  so  it  gradually  came  about  that  the  members  came  to  Crabbet 
annually.  The  members  of  the  club  were  never  more  than  a  few,  a 
dozen  to  twenty,  and  consisted,  besides  the  Herbert  brothers,  of  Eddy 
Hamilton,  who  was  afterwards  Gladstone's  private  secretary,  Lord 
Lewisham,  Jocelyn  Amherst,  Granny  Farquhar,  Lionel  Bathurst,  with 
Harry  Brand  (afterwards  Lord  Hampden),  Nigel  Kingscote,  Godfrey 
Webb,  Button  Bourke,  Frank  Lascelles,  Mark  Napier,  and  half-a- 
dozen  more  of  my  own  intimates,  and  these  came  regularly  to  Cr.ibbct 
every  summer,  and  we  gradually  adopted  the  "  Crabbet  Club  "  as  the 
name  of  our  branch. 

Though  we  professed  no  kind  of  politics,  and  looked  to  amusement 


42  Reconstruction  of  Crabbet  Club  [1890 

only,  nearly  all  the  members  of  it  were  Tories,  two  or  three  of  them  in 
Parliament,  and  when  in  1882  I  took  the  somewhat  violent  line  I  did 
about  Egypt  and  war  ensued,  several  of  the  members  taking  offence 
ceased  their  attendance,  and  the  Club  as  far  as  the  Crabbet  meetings 
were  concerned  became  less  popular,  and  this  state  of  things  was 
aggravated  when  I  stood  for  Parliament  as  a  Home  Ruler  in  1885  and 
1886,  and  it  was  all  but  submerged  by  my  imprisonment  at  Galway. 
Hardly  any  of  the  old  Wilton  members  would  answer  the  invitations 
to  it,  and  Pembroke  himself,  the  most  tolerant  of  men,  as  an  Irish 
landlord  with  large  interests  at  stake  in  the  county  of  Dublin,  felt  it 
a  grievance  that  I  should  have  identified  myself  with  the  Land  League 
and  the  Plan  of  Campaign.  All  this  was  natural  enough,  and  I  could 
not  complain  of  the  defection.  The  Club  as  the  "  Crabbet  Club  "  was 
still  continued,  but  reconstructed  on  different  lines  with  a  number  of 
young  men,  Oxford  undergraduates,  most  of  them  professing  Home 
Rule  opinions.  The  chief  of  these  were  the  two  Peels,  Willy  and 
George,  sons  of  the  Speaker,  Arthur  Pollen,  Herbert  Vivian,  Leo 
Maxse,  Percy  Wyndham  (son  of  Sir  Hugh),  Theodore  Fry,  Theobald 
Mathew,  Artie  Brand,  and  Loulou  Harcourt,  the  only  three  of  the  old 
set  being  Mark  Napier,  Eddy  Hamilton,  and  Nigel  Kingscote. 

The  young  men  thus  got  together,  most  of  them  fresh  from  the  Uni- 
versities, though  also  bent  on  amusement,  had  tastes  more  intellectual 
than  their  predecessors,  and  besides  our  lawn  tennis  handicaps,  we  had 
much  after-dinner  speaking,  and  a  verse  competition  with  the  election 
of  a  poet  laureate  for  the  year.  The  Club  was  in  this  condition  when 
in  1889  George  Wyndham,  becoming  a  member,  took  it  in  hand,  and 
seeing  its  intellectual  capabilities  brought  new  blood  into  it  by  intro- 
ducing friends  of  his  own,  already  holding  a  certain  position  in  the 
political  world,  and  who  have  since  no  few  of  them  climbed  to  fame. 
Among  these  were  George  Curzon,  Harry  Cust,  Houghton  (now  Lord 
Crewe),  Frederick  Locker,  Umphreville  Swinburne,  cousin  of  the  poet, 
St.  George  Lane  Fox,  Eddy  Tennant,  Laurence  Currie,  George  Leveson 
Gower,  Esme  Howard,  Elcho,  Dick  Grosvenor,  Alfred  Douglas,  Charles 
Gatty,  Morpeth,  and  his  brother  Hubert  Howard,  and  on  a  single  oc- 
casion Oscar  Wilde,  and  it  was  in  the  company  of  these  that  our  meet- 
ings of  the  early  nineties  were  held.  They  were  really  brilliant  meet- 
ings, with  post-prandial  oratory  of  the  most  amusing  kind,  and  were 
productive  of  verse  of  a  quite  high  order.  The  number  of  the  members 
was  limited  to  twenty,  and  there  was  much  competition  when  a  vacancy 
occurred.  The  poetry  of  the  Crabbet  Club  has  been  preserved  in  print, 
and  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  literature,  deserving  a  place,  I  venture 
to  think,  in  company  with  the  best  verse  of  a  not  serious  kind,  including 
even  perhaps  that  of  the  Mermaid  Tavern.  My  own  part  in  these 
meetings,  which  were  essentially  convivial,  was  that  of  Chairman  and 


1890]  Winter  in  Egypt  43 

President,  an  anomalous  one  seeing  that  I  was  a  teetotaller,  but  which 
yet  worked  well. 

The  latter  half  of  the  summer  of  1890  was  darkened  for  me  by  the 
final  illness  and  death  of  my  cousin,  Francis  Currie.  He  had  been 
my  Mentor,  not  always  in  the  ways  of  wisdom,  during  my  youth  at 
Paris,  and  had  remained  there  a  constant  and  very  dear  friend  for 
close  on  thirty  years.  On  my  visit  to  Paris  in  the  Spring  I  had  found 
him  ill  with  an  ominous  cough,  and  other  symptoms  of  a  decline,  but 
his  French  doctor,  whom  I  consulted  about  him,  persisted  in  declaring 
that  it  was  nothing  more  than  the  legacy  of  a  fever  he  had  long  before 
contracted  in  India  while  serving  in  the  campaign  of  the  Mutiny,  and 
encouraged  him  to  go  for  change  of  air  to  the  Alps,  though  to  my  eye, 
and  to  that  of  his  faithful  bonne  Julienne  he  was  already  "  un  hommc 
frappe."  Now,  however,  soon  after  my  return  to  the  Paris  Embassy 
in  July,  I  learned  that  he  was  at  Aix  les  Bains,  and,  as  it  seemed,  in  an 
almost  hopeless  state.  This  broke  short  my  stay  at  Paris,  and  took 
me  first  to  Aix,  and  then  moving  him  away  from  the  great  heat  there 
to  Glyon  in  Switzerland,  where,  a  month  later,  in  spite  of  our  care,  he 
died.  The  history  of  those  few  weeks,  as  of  the  rest  of  the  summer 
of  1890,  belongs,  if  ever  I  write  it,  to  my  most  private  memoirs. 

On  the  i8th  of  October  we  again  left  England  for  Egypt,  spending 
three  more  weeks  on  our  way  with  the  Lyttons  at  Paris,  and  then  on  by 
Marseilles  to  Alexandria  and  Sheykh  Obeyd,  where  we  once  more  spent 
the  winter.  The  political  position  in  Egypt  at  this  time  was  as  follows  : 
Riaz  Pasha  was  still  in  office  under  the  Khedive  Tewfik,  and  the 
provinces  of  Lower  Egypt,  laxly  ruled,  were  much  disturbed  with 
brigandage,  especially  in  our  immediate  neighbourhood.  Riaz,  who  at 
that  time  was  working  with  the  Khedive  in  secret  opposition  to  Baring 
and  the  British  Occupation,  allowed  the  brigandage  to  continue,  with 
the  idea  that  it  would  serve  as  a  proof  of  the  unpopularity  of  the  Eng- 
lish regime  and  its  powerlessness  to  preserve  order.  Baring  was  oc- 
cupied now  almost  exclusively  with  the  struggle  to  make  both  ends  of 
Egyptian  finance  meet,  being  convinced  on  his  side  that  a  prosperous 
balance  sheet  was  the  best  argument  he  could  use  with  the  British 
public  in  favour  of  retaining  Egypt  as  a  permanent  British  dependency. 
In  this  he  was  supported  by  Lord  Salisbury  at  the  Foreign  Office,  who 
had  made  up  his  mind,  now  that  the  Wolff  Convention  for  a  withdrawal 
of  the  British  garrison  had  failed,  to  stay  on  in  military  occupation 
without  any  legal  settlement  of  England's  position  on  the  Nile.  It  was 
argued  that  the  legal  road  to  such  a  settlement  had  been  barred  by  the 
Sultan,  who,  when  the  Convention  had  been  agreed  to,  had  withheld  his 
signature  of  ratification.  Though  I  did  not  know  it  at  the  time,  our 
Queen  (Victoria)  had  taken  the  Sultan's  action  as  a  personal  slight, 
seeing  that  she  had  affixed  her  own  royal  signature  in  ratification 


44  Milner  in  Egypt  [1890 

before  the  Sultan's  refusal,  nor  is  it  possible  to  say  that  she  was  without 
justification  in  feeling  the  matter  strongly.  In  accordance  with  this, 
Baring  was  beginning  those  changes  in  the  fiscal  and  administrative 
domain  which  were  intended  to  transfer  all  real  power  in  Egypt,  little 
by  little,  from  the  Turco-Circassian  class  represented  by  Riaz  which  he 
had  hitherto  patronized,  into  his  own.  The  new  policy,  however,  was 
as  yet  only  in  embryo,  and  the  intention  of  remaining  in  Egypt  was  not 
avowed.  It  was  impossible  to  do  so  openly,  not  only  through  the  fear 
of  trouble  with  France,  but  also  because  Liberal  opinion  in  England 
was  not  prepared  for  it,  and  unless  it  could  be  converted  to  the  idea 
before  the  next  general  election,  which  was  to  take  place  in  1892,  it 
was  always  possible  that  Gladstone,  coming  once  more  into  power, 
might  suddenly  reverse  the  whole  process  of  absorption,  and  without 
further  waiting  recall  the  troops  from  Cairo. 

It  was  with  this  fear  before  his  eyes  that  Baring  had  obtained  the 
services  in  Egypt  of  Alfred  Milner,  a  journalist  of  distinction,  the 
same  whom  I  had  known  in  1884  as  sub-editor  of  the  "  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  "  under  Stead  (see  "  Gordon  at  Khartoum  "),  and  who,  a  year 
later,  had  been  taken  on  by  Goschen  as  his  private  secretary.  It  was 
through  Goschen's  recommendation  that  Baring  gave  him  a  place  in 
Egypt  of  £  1,000  a  year  at  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  nominally  for  ad- 
ministrative work,  but  in  reality  with  a  mission  of  organizing  a  press 
campaign  in  London  in  favour  of  a  continuance  of  the  Egyptian  occupa- 
tion. For  this  work  no  man  could  have  been  better  chosen.  He  was 
nominally  a  Liberal,  and  had  stood  as  a  supporter  of  Gladstone  at  the 
general  election  of  1885,  while  his  experience  in  Northumberland  Street 
had  put  him  in  touch  with  all  the  chief  writers  of  the  English  Liberal 
press.  No  man  better  than  he  knew  the  length  of  the  English  electoral 
foot.  At  Cairo,  without  appearing  personally  in  his  journalistic  char- 
acter, he  knew  how  to  bring  the  case  he  had  to  -argue  forward  by  en- 
couraging the  various  Englishmen  officially  employed  there  to  write 
articles  in  the  monthly  magazines  and  elsewhere  in  praise,  not  of  their 
own,  but  of  their  fellow-administrator's  achievements  in  the  way  of 
reform,  knowing  well  that  if  it  could  be  proved  that  Egypt,  instead  of 
a  burden  on  the  British  Exchequer,  was  becoming  a  paying  concern, 
the  battle  would  be  won  with  the  new  government,  should  a  Liberal  one 
come  into  office,  even  with  Mr.  Gladstone.  And  so,  in  fact,  it  hap- 
pened. The  appearance  of  Milner's  very  able  volume,  "  England  in 
Egypt,"  in  which  he  drew  together  all  these  threads  of  argument  in 
lucid  and  attractive  form,  and  which  was  published  a  few  months  be- 
fore the  general  election  of  1892,  effected,  as  I  will  show  later,  exactly 
the  object  aimed  at.  Milner's  reward  for  this  service  was  not  delayed. 
The  same  year  he  was  relieved  from  his  nominal  functions  in  Egypt, 
and  given  the  important  place  at  home  of  Chairman  of  the  Inland 


1891]  Baring  Not  Opposed  to  Reform  45 

Revenue  Board.  I  saw  him  pretty  frequently  at  Cairo  during  his  stay 
there,  and  liked  him,  as  I  had  liked  him  when  in  his  humbler  position 
as  Stead's  assistant  editor.  He  did  not  display,  at  that  time,  anything 
of  that  violent  Imperialism  which  led  him  later  to  aspire  to  the  sublime 
heights  of  Tory  officialdom  which  he  now  occupies. 

This  was  the  position  in  Egypt  in  the  early  spring  of  1891.     I  was 
now  on  excellent  terms  with  Baring,  whom  I  found  willing  to  listen 
to  any  suggestions  I  might  make  to  him  for  improving  the  lot  of  the 
fellahin,  a  matter  which  I  understood,  while  he,  shut  up  in  his  office 
and  seeing  practically  nothing  of  native  Egypt  beyond  the  tame  officials 
whom  he  had  attracted  to  his  camp,  lived  in  comparative  darkness,  and 
I  was  able  in  this  way  to  effect  a  good  deal  in  the  direction  that  most 
interested  me,  and  I  did  not  fail  to  bring  before  him  once  more  the 
case  of  Arabi's  return ;  but  he  was  still  too  strongly  opposed  to  it, 
though,  he  explained,  if  it  was  decided  to  occupy  Egypt  permanently 
he  should  have  no  objection.     Failing  in  this,  as  far  as  Arabi  was 
concerned,  I  now  limited  my  pleading  to  an  attempt  to  interest  him  in 
other  members  of  the  former  National  Party,  and  at  the  suggestion  of 
my  old  friend,  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu,  who  was  now  living  in  my 
part  of  Egypt  as  judge  of  our  chief  country  town,  Benha,  and  whom 
we  now  saw  pretty  frequently,  I  brought  before  him  a  plan  that  he 
should  take  these  old  Nationalists  into  his  councils  and  substitute  for 
the  Circassian  Pashas  who  had  so  far  been  the  only  class  of  Moham- 
medans permitted  to  hold  office  under  the  restored  regime  since  Tel-el- 
Kebir,  an  Egyptian  fellah  government.     Neither  Riaz,  nor  Nubar,  nor 
any  other  of  the  ministers  who  had  held  office  during  the  past  seven 
years,  though  patriotic  some  of  them  to  the  extent  of  having  it  for  their 
aim  to  get  rid  of  all  foreign  elements  in  the  administration,  had  taken 
any  real  interest  in  bettering  the  condition  of  the  fellahin,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  a  lack  of  intelligence  on  Baring's  part  that  he  had  failed  to  under- 
stand the  popularity  he  might  have  gained  by  the  creation  of  a  fellah 
ministry,  and  the  comparative  ease  with  which  he  could  have  introduced 
the  reforms  he  professed  to  have  at  heart,  and  really  at  that  time  had. 
I  find  this  alluded  to  in  my  diary: 

"  2Oth  Feb. —  A  few  days  ago,  there  being  a  ministerial  crisis,  I 
wrote  to  Baring  suggesting  that  he  should  take  new  men  into  the 
ministry  instead  of  Riaz  and  the  Circassians,  who,  despising  the  fel- 
lahin, look  only  to  their  own  class  interests.  He  answered  me  favour- 
ably, and  to-day  I  called  on  him,  and  after  luncheon  we  discussed  the 
position.  Riaz  has  already  given  in,  so  nothing  is  to  be  done  at  present ; 
but  he  expressed  himself  willing  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  any  men 
of  the  fellah  class  whose  names  I  could  suggest,  and  I  am  to  write  to 
him  again  on  the  subject  in  a  few  days.  He  fully  admitted  that  Riaz 
was  an  obstructive;  '  but  where,'  he  said,  '  is  there  anyone  better? '  It 


46  /  Suggest  a  Fellah  Ministry  [1891 

was  a  doubtful  question  whether  it  was  possible  to  put  Mohammedans 
on  any  road  of  reform.  I  said:  '  If  you  give  up  that  hope  you  give 
up  everything,  but  you  have  not  tried  the  Liberal  party  to  help  you  in 
reforms.'  He  said  he  '  was  quite  willing.  If  the  National  party  in 
1882  had  not  allied  itself  with  the  army  it  might  have  been  supported.' 
'  That  was  the  fault,'  I  said,  '  of  the  Joint  Note.'  He  agreed -that  '  the 
Joint  Note  was  a  mistake,'  and,  I  think,  was  impressed  with  what  I 
said,  and  we  parted  on  the  understanding  that  I  was  to  give  him  the 
names  of  persons  I  thought  able  to  afford  him  political  help,  but  he 
enjoined  on  me  complete  secrecy.  '  I  will  take  some  opportunity/  he 
said,  '  of  making  their  acquaintance,  but  there  is  a  difficulty  sometimes 
in  my  seeing  the  people.'  I  shall  wait  until  Hassan  Pasha  Sherei  re- 
turns from  Upper  Egypt,  and  then  see  if  we  cannot  make  out  a  fellah 
Cabinet  together."  I  have  a  few  letters  which  passed  between  me  and 
Baring  at  this  time.  They  are  of  importance  as  showing  that  the  policy 
of  introducing  reforms  through  native  Egyptians  of  the  Mohommedan 
Reform  Party  was  laid  before  Sir  Evelyn  Baring,  and  its  advantages 
more  or  less  acknowledged  by  him  full  fifteen  years  before  he,  as  Lord 
Cromer,  adopted  it  as  the  only  one  which  could  give  a  hope  of  making 
self-government  in  Egypt  possible.  (See  his  Reports  for  the  year 

I905-) 

Our  life  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  that  Spring  was  not  without  incident,  as 
our  immediate  neighbourhood  was  disturbed  almost  nightly  by  gangs 
of  robbers,  who  visited  the  country  houses  round,  breaking  into  them 
in  the  night  time  and  coming  in  armed  conflict  with  such  of  the  owners 
as  resisted  them.  The  bands  were  composed  principally  of  Bedouins, 
with  whom  were  associated  certain  refugees  from  Upper  Egypt  and  a 
few  broken  men  escaped  from  the  prisons  at  Toura,  but  the  direction 
of  them  was  in  Bedouin  hands.  For  this  reason  we,  who  were  on 
good  terms  with  the  tribes,  were  left  unmolested,  though  every  one 
of  our  near  neighbours  suffered.  This  is  from  my  diary : 

"  7//i  March. —  Last  night  at  half-past  twelve  I  heard  a  great  noise 
of  dogs  barking,  and  occasional  shots.  I  went  out  on  to  the  balcony 
and  listened,  and  was  about  to  go  to  bed  again,  for  the  guards  have  a 
habit  of  firing  without  reason  in  the  night  to  show  they  are  awake,  when 
I  heard  cries,  and  I  called  to  Deyf  Allah,  our  head  ghaffir,  and  asked 
him  what  it  was.  He  answered,  '  there  are  robbers  at  Selim  Bey's.' 
I  consequently  dressed  hastily  and  ran  down,  having  first  awakened 
Anne,  and  taking  my  Winchester  rifle  and  a  revolver  sallied  forth,  fol- 
lowed by  Deyf  Allah  and  Mahmud  the  Berberin.  It  was  a  dark  night 
and  I  held  my  rifle  ready  to  fire  as  we  went  through  the  palm  grove 
where  I  thought  I  saw  one  or  two  people  moving.  As  we  got  near  to 
Selim  Faraj's  house  (a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  ours)  the  noise  of  the 


1891]  A  Night  Attack  by  Robbers  47 

dogs  increased  and  mixed  with  it  there  were  groans,  while  occasional 
shots  were  still  being  fired  at  a  distance.  I  went  cautiously  up  to  the 
house  where  I  met  an  Arab  with  whom  I  exchanged  greetings.  He  was 
probably  one  of  Selim's  guards.  At  the  door  lay  a  fellah  groaning  with 
his  head  cut  open.  There  was  a  light  at  the  window,  and  women  began 
to  scream.  On  my  coming  close  they  told  me  they  had  been  robbed, 
and  I  found  the  window  bars  wrenched  open.  Presently  Selim  ap- 
peared at  the  door  [he  was  a  County  Court  Judge,  a  Syrian  Christian] 
his  face  a  coagulated  mass  of  blood,  and  he  let  me  in  and  told  me  the 
history  of  what  had  happened.  There  had  been  a  noise  of  knocking  at 
his  door,  and  on  his  opening  it,  thinking  it  was  the  guard,  he  received 
a  blow  from  a  nabout  (a  quarter  staff)  on  his  shoulder,  but  managed 
to  slip  back  inside  and  bar  the  door.  Then  a  number  of  men  attacked 
the  house,  calling  on  him  to  open,  and  on  his  refusal  they  broke  through 
the  windows,  while  he  struck  at  them  with  a  meat  chopper,  but  they 
pushed  him  back  and  got  through,  six  of  them,  and  called  for  his 
money.  He  proposed  to  them  to  pay  next  day,  but  they  declined  to 
wait  and  broke  open  his  chests  of  drawers  and  made  search.  While  this 
was  going  on,  he  hid  with  his  little  girl  in  the  scullery,  but  later  issued 
out  again  to  defend  his  property,  and  received  three  wounds  on  his 
head  with  some  sharp  instrument.  Then  the  robbers,  having  found 
the  money  they  were  looking  for  in  his  pockets,  £37,  and  hearing  me 
coming,  for  there  was  a  cry  of  '  tarbush,'  their  watchword  for  the 
police,  decamped.  The  wounded  fellah  was  a  servant  whom  they  had 
cut  down  outside  with  their  nabouts,  but  nobody  paid  him  the  least 
attention,  and  I  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  him  carried  inside  the 
house.  The  ladies  begged  me  to  stay  on  with  them,  but  I  refused,  as 
I  had  my  own  people  to  look  after,  and  so  went  back,  and  nothing 
further  happened  till  daybreak.  On  my  return  in  the  morning  I  found 
Selim  in  bed,  and  heard  his  story  again.  The  men,  he  said,  were  nearly 
naked,  but  had  their  faces  masked.  They  spoke  the  Mogrebbin  dialect. 
They  were  Arabs  of  the  West.  I  then  went  with  Sheykh  Hassan  Abu 
Tawil,  the  chief  of  our  local  Arabs  and  a  tracker,  and  we  followed  the 
track  of  seven  men,  which  was  very  distinct  in  the  sand,  running 
towards  Matarieh.  When  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  the  railway 
station  there,  they  had  sat  down  and  then  separated,  one  who  had  been 
wearing  shoes  going  to  the  ostrich  farm,  the  rest  towards  the  tents  of 
Prince  Ahmed  Pasha's  guard.  It  is  generally  thought  that  they  are 
local  people,  though  Abu  Tawil  insists  they  are  Mogrebbins,  who  once 
lived  near  the  Obelisk  (of  Heliopolis),  and  come  back  every  year  to 
rob.  One  of  them  had  enormous  footprints,  probably  a  Negro.  I 
have  taken  Selim  Bey  into  Cairo,  first  to  Baring,  who,  however,  was  too 
busy  to  see  him,  and  then  on  with  a  note  from  him  to  Baker  Pasha, 


48  Proposed  Fellah  Ministry  [1891 

the  English  Chief  of  Police,  an  old  military  fogey  whom  I  worked  up 
into  unwonted  action  by  telling  him  that  the  state  of  the  country  was 
worse  than  either  Greece  or  Asia  Minor." 

The  curious  part  of  this  episode,  though  I  do  not  find  it  in  my  diary, 
was  Selim  Bey's  attitude  in  the  affair.  He  was  a  native  Christian 
Judge,  and  had  been  a  man  of  the  law  all  his  life,  but  it  was  with  the 
greatest  difficulty  that  I  could  persuade  him  to  report  the  attack  made 
on  him  to  the  police.  "  It  would  only  put  me  on  bad  terms  with  the 
neighbours,"  he  said,  worse  than  those  he  was  already  on,  for  he  was 
very  unpopular,  and  it  was  only  on  my  declaring  that  I  would  myself 
report  it  that  he  consented  to  go  in  with  me  to  Cairo. 

"  I4th  March. —  The  attack  on  Selim  Bey  has  made  a  stir  and  his 
house  is  guarded  by  the  regular  police.  The  Mudir  has  been  there  and 
Baker  Pasha.  They  have  made  nine  or  ten  arrests,  among  them  the 
two  Ghaffirs.  Poor  old  Eid,  our  bowab  (gatekeeper),  being  one  of 
them.  I  found  him  sitting  disconsolately  among  the  prisoners  with  his 
little  child  he  is  so  fond  of.  I  am  sorry  I  troubled  myself  in  the 
matter,  for  I  do  not  believe  one  of  the  arrested  men  had  anything  to 
do  with  the  business,  but  this  is  the  fourth  serious  case  round  about  us 
in  eighteen  months,  and  last  time  they  killed  a  man,  and  a  woman  died 
of  fright.  Selim  Bey's  wound  is  rather  serious,  and  the  servant  may  yet 
die;  he  is  in  hospital.  The  Mudir  took  from  me  a  deposition,  but  it 
was  very  meagre,  and  I  had  a  difficulty  in  preventing  the  insertion  in  it 
of  things  quite  untrue." 

This  affair  put  an  end  for  the  time  to  the  night  attacks.  I  came  to 
the  conclusion  later  that  the  tolerance  the  bands  had  so  long  enjoyed 
had  been  due  to  Riaz'  tacit  complicity  joined  to  Baker's  muddle-headed 
incapacity  (he  was  replaced  soon  afterwards).  I  took  advantage  of  it 
to  draw  a  moral  for  Baring,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  him  recapitulating  my 
arguments  in  favour  of  a  fellah  government,  sending  him  a  list  of  the 
names  of  men  of  the  fellah  party  who  might  make  up  a  Reform  Min- 
istry. The  list  was  drawn  up  in  consultation  with  Sheykh  Mohammed 
Abdu  and  Mohammed  Moelhi.  These  are  the  names : 

Hassan  Pasha  Sherei  of  Minieh. 

Baligh  Bey. 

Emin  Bey  Fikri. 

Said  Effendi  Zaghloul. 

Ahmed  Effendi  Mahmoud. 

Ibrahim  Effendi  el  Wakil. 

Mahmud  Bey  Shukri. 

Ahmed  Bey  Heshmet. 

Yusuf  Bey   Shoki. 

Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu. 
It  is  to  be  remarked  that  this  list  includes  the  name  of  Saad  Zaghloul, 


1891]  /  Argue  with  Daring  49 

whom  fifteen  years  later  Cromer  made  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
as  well  as  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu's,  afterwards  Grant  Mufti,  whom 
he  declared  to  be  the  chief  hope  of  Liberal  Islam  in  Egyt.  Baring, 
however,  missed  his  real  opportunity  by  neglecting  my  recommenda- 
tion of  Hassan  Sherei,  who  politically  was  of  far  greater  weight  than 
any  of  them,  and  who  had  died  before  Baring  could  bring  himself  to 
accepting  a  fellah  Ministry.  "  Baring,  however,  answers :  '  I  do  not 
think  there  is  a  ghost  of  a  chance  of  the  Khedive  forming  a  fellah 
Ministry.'  Still  Baring  may  come  to  it,  as  Riaz  has  been  coquetting 
with  the  French,  and  has  brought  about  a  fine  diplomatic  storm.  Our 
only  policy  is  to  wait  the  disappearance,  one  after  the  other,  of  the  old 
ministers,  and  sooner  or  later  they  must  come  to  us  if  they  do  not 
annex.  Sherif  is  gone  and  Nubar,  and  now  Riaz  seems  going. 

"  4th  April. —  To  Cairo  and  saw  Baring.  I  asked  him  first  about 
the  drink  shops,  and  he  said  that  though  he  still  hoped  to  be  able  to 
issue  his  regulations,  there  was  great  opposition  to  these  for  political 
reasons  from  the  French ;  the  question  of  public  security  was  much  more 
important ;  it  was  a  difficult  job ;  he  should  put  an  end  to  it  in  time,  but 
he  hardly  knew  how ;  with  regard  to  the  native  government  it  was 
impossible  to  get  men  capable  and  honest ;  things  were  going  badly  and 
were  leading  to  a  new  smash-up ;  he  had  only  to  work  on  as  he  could. 
I  asked  him  what  he  thought  would  happen  if  we  evacuated.  He  said 
everything  would  go  to  smash,  but  we  should  not  evacuate.  I  said  we 
might  be  obliged  to  do  so  if  there  was  a  change  of  government  at 
home.  He  said,  '  I  shall  protest  against  it,  and,  if  it  is  insisted  on,  I 
wash  my  hands  of  the  consequences.'  I  said,  '  It  is  impossible  you 
should  not  be  responsible  if  you  do  nothing  to  prepare  for  it.'  He 
said,  'They  are  all  alike  (meaning  the  Egyptians).  I  know  most  of 
the  men  you  wrote  of.'  '  And  Hassan  Sherei  ? '  I  asked.  '  No,  not 
Hassan  Sherei,  but  they  are  all  alike.'  He  said,  '  The  Khedive  is  in 
favour  of  reform.'  '  Yes,  as  long  as  he  thinks  you  stronger  than  the 
French,  but  if  England  were  forced  to  evacuate,  you  would  see  how 
soon  he  would  go  over.'  '  I  daresay.  My  experience  of  Easterns  is 
all  that  way,  but  we  shall  not  evacuate ;  we  shall  have  a  war  with 
France.'  I  reminded  him  of  our  conversation  of  1883,  when  I  told 
him  he  could  make  nothing  of  Tewfik  and  the  Circassians.  He  said, 
'  Whom  would  you  have  had  ?  There  would  only  have  been  Halim,  and 
it  would  have  been  the  same  thing.  At  any  rate,  it  is  too  late  now  to 
change.'  And  so  we  parted." 

All  this  is  of  interest  now  as  showing  how  little  reality  there  was  in 
the  excuse  so  commonly  made  for  the  breach  of  our  declarations  that 
we  were  going  to  leave  Egypt,  and  that  our  remaining  on  there  was 
thrust  upon  us  against  our  will.  It  was  only  true  in  the  sense  that  it 
was  impossible  to  leave  Egypt  and  at  the  same  time  remain  its  lords 


5O  Naples  and  Rome 

and  masters  politically ;  only  one  way  was  really  possible,  and  that  we 
always  refused  to  take,  to  restore  the  National  party  with  its  liberal 
ideas,  and  thus  earn  its  gratitude  and  confidence.  Egypt  might  then 
have  remained,  not  a  dependency  of  the  British  Empire,  but  its  very 
good  friend  and  the  faithful  guardian  of  the  route  by  the  Suez  Canal 
to  India.  The  mistake  made  on  this  head  by  Baring  was  among  the 
many  causes  that  led,  as  I  shall  show,  to  England's  being  obliged  to 
take  part  in  the  quarrel  between  France  and  Germany  in  the  great 
war  of  1914.  Lord  Cromer's  obstinacy  on  this  point  was  a  misfortune. 
Another  was  the  unlooked-for  secession  which  occurred  that  spring  of 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill  from  the  counsels  of  the  Tory  party  at  home. 
Churchill  had,  ever  since  1882,  been  a  powerful  advocate  with  Lord 
Salisbury  of  Egypt's  claim  to  a  restoration  of  her  independence  so 
unwisely  taken  from  her  in  that  year,  and  his  quarrel  now  with  his 
party  left  my  advocacy  of  Egyptian  liberty  without  support  at  the 
Foreign  Office  of  effective  Cabinet  kind. 

We  left  Sheykh  Obeyd  for  Europe  in  April,  taking  Rome  again  on 
our  way  home  and  Paris. 

"23rd  April  1891. —  Landed  at  Naples  this  morning,  having  finished 
a  letter  yesterday  to  Lord  Salisbury  about  Egyptian  affairs,  and  I  hope 
he  may  pay  the  attention  to  it  it  deserves. 

"  Having  seen  our  things  through  the  custom  house  we  drove  to 
Agnano  and  the  Grotto  del  Cane.  The  lake  which  used  to  be  the 
beauty  of  the  place  has  been  dried  up  these  twenty  years  by  a  French 
company,  which  thought  to  find  the  ancient  Roman  town  but  found 
nothing;  their  operations  have  left  a  desolation  hideous  to  -the  eye. 
How  horrible  civilized  man  is.  All  day  the  spectacle  of  these  Neapoli- 
tans in  their  modern  slop  clothes  has  been  to  me  a  nightmare;  all 
nature  is  defiled  by  them.  What  countenances  of  filthy  passions !  what 
abominations  to  the  senses !  what  foul  rubbish  heaps !  what  stenches ! 
We  looked  into  the  Grotto  del  Cane  where  criminals  they  say  were 
cast  in  the  days  of  Nero.  It  must  have  been  a  merciful  death ;  witness 
the  custode's  little  dog  which  has  '  died  daily '  there  for  sixteen  years 
and  still  wags  its  tail  at  each  new  performance.  A  nightingale  was 
singing,  the  only  thing  quite  in  harmony  with  the  beauty  of  the  sky 
and  hills.  Later  we  saw  the  young  Duke,  the  heir  to  the  Italian  throne, 
a  small  timid-faced  young  man,  very  unlike  the  House  of  Savoy  of 
which  he  is  to  be  the  head.  The  prince  is  physically  unimposing, 
though  on  horseback  he  looks  well  enough. 

"At  Rome,  24th  April. —  To  Monsignor  Stonor's,  who  showed  me  a 
huge  correspondence  he  has  been  having  with  O'Shea  on  the  subject 
of  a  libel  committed  on  him  by  Dr.  McCormack,  Bishop  of  Galway, 
O'Shea  having  appealed  to  the  Pope.  There  was  one  specially  interest- 
ing letter  he  gave  me  to  read.  It  related  to  Parnell's  doings  with 


1891]  The  French  Defeat  at  Tonkin  51 

Chamberlain  in  1885,  and  his  acceptance  of  a  local  government  scheme, 
also  to  the  part  played  by  O'Shea,  Dr.  O'Dwyer,  and  Cardinal  Manning 
in  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Walsh  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Dublin.  They 
had  all,  according  to  the  letter,  guaranteed  Dr.  Walsh  as  a  sound 
champion  of  law  and  order.  '  Law  and  Order,'  however,  meant  an- 
other thing  in  1885  from  what  it  has  meant  since.  Monsignor  Stonor 
says  that  Cardinal  Moran  was  already  appointed  to  Dublin  and  on  his 
way  from  Australia  to  Rome,  when  his  nomination  was  reversed  and 
Dr.  Walsh  appointed  instead.  He  laments  now  the  ignorance  of  the 
Vatican,  which  sees  in  Ireland  only  a  faithful  Catholic  land  oppressed 
by  a  Foreign  Government.  I  am  staying  on  at  the  Minerva,  Anne  and 
Judith  having  gone  home  straight  from  Naples. 

"  2§th  April. —  To  the  Irish  College  where  I  saw  my  old  friend  the 
Monsignore  Rector,  who  spoke  despondingly  of  Ireland,  praying  only 
that  God's  will  might  be  done.  Not  so  Prior  Glyn  and  Archbishop 
Walsh  whom  I  next  saw.  They  are  very  confident  of  beating  Parnell 
out  of  Ireland,  and  winning  the  English  elections  (next  year)  ;  if  not 
they  agree  that  the  cause  of  Home  Rule  is  hopeless,  for  Irish  America 
would  not  continue  to  support  a  parliamentary  struggle,  but  would  fall 
back  on  secret  societies  and  assassination.  Dr.  Walsh  estimates 
Parnell's  party  in  Ireland  after  the  elections  at  sixteen  out  of  a  total 
of  eighty  Home  Rule  Members.  Prior  Glyn's  last  words  to  me 
were  'We  shall  meet  again  at  College  Green  when  the  Parliament  is 
opened/ 

"  2%th  April. —  Called  on  Dufferin  at  the  Embassy,  who  showed  me 
a  number  of  drawings  he  had  made  in  former  times,  including  one  of 
his  mother,  done  at  Athens  in  the  year  of  our  first  acquaintance,  1859. 
He  talked  a  good  deal  on  Eastern  subjects,  but  he  skilfully  avoided 
politics,  making  it  clear  that  he  wished  the  visit  to  be  one  of  friendship 
only." 

At  Paris  I  stayed  four  days,  principally  with  the  Lyttons,  the  talk  of 
the  day  being  of  the  French  failure  at  Tonkin. 

"  3O//1  April. —  To  a  coiffeur  in  the  Rue  de  la  Paix  to  be  trimmed  and 
washed  and  combed  after  the  fashion  of  the  country.  The  man  who 
attended  me  was  very  voluble,  having  been  a  soldier  in  Tonkin  and  a 
blood-thirsty  one  to  boot,  by  his  own  showing.  '  Ah,  Monsieur,'  he 
exclaimed,  '  quel  gotivernement  que  le  notre,  un  gouvernement  qui  ne 
sait  rien  faire  marcher.  Figurez  vous  qu'on  vous  envoie  des  civils 
pour  gouverner  la  Colonie,  des  hommes  de  science  qui  s'imaginent  que 
tous  les  hommes  sont  freres.  Ce  n'est  pas  cele  qu'il  faut  a  la  Colonie. 
en  agissant  avec  des  brutes  il  faut  etre  brutal.  Si  j'avais  ete  nomme 
gouverneur  pendant  un  mois  settlement,  j'aurais  extermine  tout  ce 
monde  Tonquinois.  II  faut  les  assommer,  Monsieur,  comme  fait  le 
gouvernement  Anglais  aux  Indes.  Voila  un  gouvernement  qui  a  la 


52  Labouchere  on  Gladstone  [jSpi 

main  raide ;  c'est  ce  qu'il  f  audrait  a  nos  colonies.'  He  asked  me  whether 
I  was  not  of  his  opinion.  I  said,  '  Perhaps  not  quite.' " 

On  my  arrival  a  few  days  later  in  London  I  had  a  momentary  hope 
about  Egypt,  seeing  it  announced  in  the  "Times"  (i3th  May)  that 
the  Riaz  Ministry  had  resigned.  I  had  heard  the  news  the  night  before 
from  Rivers  Wilson,  and  was  full  of  hope  that  the  new  men  who,  the 
"  Times  "  said,  were  to  take  their  place  would  be  of  the  Fellah  Party, 
but  the  hope  was  speedily  dispelled,  as  it  proved  to  be  merely  a  shifting 
of  places,  no  single  member  of  the  new  Ministry  being  of  the  National 
Party  or  of  the  native  fellah  class.  Also  Lord  Salisbury,  2ist  May, 
made  a  speech  about  Egypt,  which  seemed  to  exclude  all  thought  of 
preparing  for  evacuation.  It  put  an  end  for  a  while  to  my  pleading 
for  the  Egyptian  cause,  except  with  my  few  political  friends,  Evelyn, 
Labouchere,  Auberon  Herbert,  and  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson.  Soon  after 
this: 

"  2nd  June. —  I  saw  Sir  William  Gregory  in  London,  who  was  in- 
teresting himself  in  the  hoped-for  return  to  Egypt  of  the  Ceylon  exiles. 
We  agreed  that  Lord  Salisbury  was  hopeless,  and  that  we  had  better 
put  Labouchere  on  our  Egyptian  business,  so  to  Labouchere  I  went. 
He  has  moved  into  a  delightful  house  in  Old  Palace  Yard  exactly  op- 
posite the  Houses  of  Parliament.  I  met  him  on  the  doorstep  just 
coming  in  from  the  House,  in  an  old  skull-cap  which  he  wears  instead 
of  hat,  and  he  took  me  in  to  luncheon.  We  talked  about  Egypt,  as 
to  which  he  has  always  been  sounder  than  any  other  politician  except 
Randolph.  I  was  glad  to  find  that  he  was  not  prepared  to  evacuate 
unconditionally,  but  intended,  when  the  Liberals  came  into  power,  to 
get  Egypt  neutralised,  and  I  think  he  will  serve  us  better  than  anyone 
else  can.  '  If  you  have  any  influence  with  the  French,'  he  said,  '  get 
them  to  propose  terms  of  neutralization.'  I  explained  to  him  what  the 
position  in  Egypt  was.  He  was  very  amusing  about  the  actual  state 
of  the  Liberal  party,  '  Gladstone  in  his  dotage  pulled  this  way  by  one 
and  that  way  by  another.  They  don't  expect  a  dissolution  until  next 
year,  but  hope  to  keep  the  old  man  alive  like  the  Tycoon  of  Japan,  even 
after  he  is  dead.'  All  agree  that  there  will  be  a  general  break  up  in 
the  party  when  Gladstone  dies.  Labouchere  is  looking  old,  he  tells 
me  he  is  fifty-eight,  but  I  trust  he  may  last  long  enough  some  day  to 
lead  his  party." 

With  Lawson  I  had  a  long  talk,  June  the  4th,  and  "  found  him  nearly 
as  much  a  pessimist  about  the  human  race  as  I  have  become.  In  Eng- 
land he  looks  to  the  advent  of  a  really  democratic  parliament  as  a  last 
chance,  beyond  which,  if  it  fails,  there  is  nothing  to  hope."  With 
Morris,  too,  whom  I  again  saw  much  of,  I  found  the  same  political 
despondency.  He  had  just  published  his  "  News  from  Nowhere." 
"  The  picture  he  draws  in  it  of  social  communism  is  pretty,  but  he,  too, 


1891]  The  Society  of  "The  Souls"  53 

is  not  very  hopeful  of  its  ever  coming  true.  I  am  determined  now  to  get 
on  with  my  '  Secret  History  of  the  Invasion  of  Egypt,'  so  as  to  have  it 
ready  for  publication  when  Gladstone  comes  back  to  office.  My  old 
friend,  too,  Eddy  Hamilton,  I  saw.  I  found  him  occupying  the  ground 
floor  rooms  of  No.  10,  Downing  Street.  His  sitting  room  is  that  in 
which  the  Cabinet  Councils  have  always  been  held,  and  many  a  scurvy 
decision  been  come  to  in  the  last  hundred  years."  Hamilton  was  now 
permanent  official  head  of  the  Treasury,  and  the  rooms  had  been  lent 
him  by  Lord  Salisbury  who  did  not  occupy  them.  He  was  suffering, 
however,  with  the  disease,  creeping  paralysis,  of  which  some  years  later 
he  died,  and  we  did  not  talk  much  on  Egypt  or  on  politics. 

In  my  disappointment  about  Egypt  I  turned  with  redoubled  zest  to 
my  social  pleasures  of  the  year  before,  and  at  this  time  saw  much  of 
that  interesting  group  of  clever  men  and  pretty  women  known  as  the 
"  Souls,"  than  whom  no  section  of  London  Society  was  better  worth 
frequenting,  including  as  it  did  all  that  there  was  most  intellectually 
amusing  and  least  conventional.  It  was  a  group  of  men  and  women 
bent  on  pleasure,  but  pleasure  of  a  superior  kind,  eschewing  the  vul- 
garities of  racing  and  card-playing  indulged  in  by  the  majority  of  the 
rich  and  noble,  and  looking  for  their  excitement  in  romance  and  senti- 
ment. But  this  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  describe  the  life  we  led, 
though  it  well  deserves  being  eternalized  in  print.  It  harmonized  well 
with  my  literary  work,  and  the  verses  I  was  preparing  for  a  new  edi- 
tion of  the  "  Sonnets  and  Songs  of  Proteus."  This  William  Morris 
had  proposed  to  print  as  one  of  the  earliest  volumes  of  the  Kelmscott 
Press,  and  I  was  much  with  him  in  connection  with  it. 

"  loth  June. —  There  is  a  great  turmoil  in  the  papers  about  Lord 
Salisbury's  Treaty  or  Agreement  with  Italy  in  1887.  It  appears  now 
that  King  Humbert  told  Prince  Napoleon  about  it,  and  at  last  it  has 
come  out.  This  coincides  with  the  change  of  policy  in  Egypt,  and  the 
determination  to  remain  there."  [This  Agreement,  which  has  never 
been  officially  admitted  by  our  Foreign  Office,  related  to  an  intended 
seizure  by  Italy  of  Tripoli,  and  a  promise  that  England  would  help 
Italy  if  it  led  to  a  quarrel  between  her  and  France.  The  reality  of  the 
agreement,  however,  has  since  been  acknowledged  by  Crispi  in  his 
Memoirs.] 

To  London  in  the  evening  and  dined  in  Park  Lane  (a  small  dinner 
arranged  by  George  Wyndham,  in  which  I  was  to  meet  Arthur  Ralfour 
and  bury  the  hatchet  with  him  of  our  Irish  quarrel).  The  party  con- 
sisted of  George  and  his  wife.  Lady  Clifden's  daughter,  Miss  Ellis, 
Mrs.  Hardinge,  Lord  Edmund  Talbot,  Bo  Grosvenor  (Lord  Ebury). 
Charles  Gatty,  with  Balfour  and  me.  It  was  a  pleasant  party,  and 
after  the  ladies  had  left  we  stayed  on  talking  till  past  one  o'clock.  I 
had  not  met  Balfour  since  my  Irish  campaigning,  and  we  did  not  talk 


54  London  Adulates  Kaiser  IVilhelm  [l%91 

politics,  discussing  instead  literature,  and  especially  the  influence  of 
Arabia  on  the  Middle  Ages.  Balfour  was  agreeable  and  the  conversa- 
tion brilliant,  and  he  showed  especial  amiability  to  me  as  if  to  make 
up  for  past  severities,  offering  me  a  place  in  his  brougham  to  go  home 
in  when  we  went  away.  Why,  indeed,  should  we  quarrel?  He  has 
mitigated  his  prison  rigours  in  Ireland  and  I  am  aloof  from  politics. 

"  nth  July. —  Arabi's  case  has  been  brought  forward  in  Parliament 
by  Labouchere,  and  the  Foreign  Office  answer  is  fairly  satisfactory. 
Ferguson  says  that  the  Government  has  uttered  no  non  possumus  about 
the  exiles,  and  is  seeing  what  can  be  done. 

"  All  the  world  is  agog  just  now  about  the  visit  of  the  German  Em- 
peror to  London,  and  the  Liberals  are  just  as  absurd  (in  their  adula- 
tion) as  the  Tories.  I  met  Justin  McCarthy  to-day  in  the  street  with 
his  son  Huntly,  and  walked  some  way  with  them.  They  were  jubilant 
about  the  Carlow  election  and  Parnell's  collapse,  but  Huntly  told  me 
he  did  not  intend  to  come  forward  again  in  Parliament,  but  would 
stick  to  literature.  His  talk  about  Egypt  was  quite  in  the  Imperialistic 
vein,  justifying  what  I  have  always  predicted  that  the  Irish,  once  free, 
would  be  more  English  than  the  English  in  enslaving  the  weaker  na- 
tions. 

"  i$th  July. —  To  see  Cardinal  Manning,  taking  with  me  a  basket  of 
roses  from  Crabbet  for  his  birthday,  of  which  I  was  reminded  by 
Hedgecock's  remark  in  the  morning  that  to-day  was  '  Swithums.'  The 
old  man  is  less  infirm,  I  thought,  and  we  talked  politics  and  literature. 
He  told  me  of  two  new  poets,  Symons  and  Mrs.  King.  He  is  satisfied 
with  the  way  things  are  going  in  Ireland,  and  asked  me  what  I  thought 
of  the  Pope's  Labour  Encyclical.  It  is,  in  truth,  a  rather  colourless 
pronouncement,  saying  too  little. 

"6th  Aug. —  At  Coombe,  where  I  heard  from  Bertram  Currie  the 
history  of  the  Baring  financial  crisis,  and  the  part  he  had  played  in 
averting  its  being  an  absolute  crash.  The  collapse  was  due  to  Revel- 
stoke's  having  gambled  outside  the  line  of  his  ordinary  business.  He 
had  had  his  head  turned  by  the  million  he  had  made  over  the  Guinness 
affair,  and  he  had  come  to  think  that  everything  he  touched  must  turn 
to  gold,  and  he  went  on  to  his  ventures  in  South  America,  which  let 
him  in.  The  House  of  Baring  would  have  broken  altogether  if  he, 
Bertram,  had  not  got  the  Bank  of  England  to  secure  its  liabilities  for 
a  million  and  taken  half  a  million  himself  and  persuaded  Lord  Roths- 
child as  late  as  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  to  take  another.  The  pros- 
pects in  South  America  are  bad,  as  things  there  do  not  settle  down  and 
Ned  [Revelstoke]  has  only  £500  a  year  settled  income.  [This  was  a 
case  that  had  made  an  immense  sensation  in  the  City.  But  the  House 
of  Baring  has  happily  survived  it.] 

"  ^th  August. —  Lunched  at  Kelmscott   House  when  Mrs.  Morris 


1891]  Morris'  Kelmscott  Press  55 

took  me  to  see  the  printing.  Morris's  own  poems  were  being  struck 
off,  most  beautiful  they  are  with  their  rubrics.  The  sheet  I  saw  be- 
ing printed  contained  the  Ballad  of  John  a  Wood." 

This  also  of  nearly  the  same  date  relates  to  the  Kelmscott  Press. 
"  Had  supper  with  Morris  and  his  wife  and  her  sister,  Miss  Burden, 
and  a  Mr.  Walker  [Emery  Walker],  who  helps  in  the  printing  work. 
Morris  was  busy  drawing  a  title-page  for  his  '  Golden  Legend '  and 
there  were  some  sheets  of  his  new  volume  of  poems,  which  is  to  be 
uniform  with  the  volume  he  is  printing  for  me.  He  was  immensely 
pleased  when  I  told  him  that  I  had  read  his  '  News  from  Nowhere,' 
and  that  Anne  also  had  read  it.  He  gave  an  amusing  account  of  an 
old  house  '  that  that  fellow  Watts  (the  painter)  had  been  daubing 
over.  But  a  coat  of  whitewash/  he  said,  '  would  soon  set  that  right.' 
I  told  him  in  return  about  George  Wyndham's  visit  to  Swinburne  at 
Putney,  a  few  months  ago,  when  the  other  Watts,  Theodore  Watts- 
Dunton,  had  insisted  on  talking  politics  with  him  instead  of  literature, 
to  George's  disgust,  and  how  it  had  ended  in  Watts  reading  out  his 
own  poems  instead  of  letting  Swinburne  read  his.  Watts,  George 
tells  me,  keeps  Swinburne  prisoner,  as  a  keeper  keeps  a  lunatic.  He 
had  explained  to  George  that  some  years  ago  he  had  found  Swinburne 
in  bed,  dying  of  what  is  called  '  drunkard's  diarrhoea,'  and  that  having 
got  him  round,  he  now  considers  Swinburne  as  his  own  property,  and 
treats  him  like  a  naughty  boy,  '  a  case,'  said  George,  '  for  police  inter- 
ference.' Morris  was  greatly  amused  at  this." 

The  month  of  September  saw  me  in  Scotland  for  a  fortnight's 
grouse  shooting  at  Castle  Menzies,  which  had  been  rented  for  the 
season  by  my  friends  the  Wagrams,  where  I  had  the  advantage  of 
meeting  a  number  of  French  royalists  who  were  staying  there  to  pay 
their  court  to  the  Comte  de  Paris,  who  rented  a  moor  close  by,  the 
Broglies,  the  Jaucourts,  and  the  Hautpouls,  as  well  as  Count  Mens- 
dorff,  afterwards  Austrian  Ambassador  in  London.  With  these  I 
made  friends,  and  also  had  more  than  one  opportunity  of  seeing  the 
Comte  and  Comtesse  de  Paris  and  their  beautiful  daughter,  Princess 
Helene,  who  was  at  one  time  so  nearly  marrying  the  heir  to  our  own 
English  throne,  and  who  afterwards  married  the  Duke  of  Aosta  (I 
had  already  met  her  once  before  at  the  Wagrams'),.  My  diary  de- 
scribes the  life  led  by  these  most  worthy  Pretenders  to  the  throne  of 
France  in  their  summer  Highland  home  thus : 

"  i3//t  Sept.  Sunday. —  We  drove  over  to  Loch  Kinnaird,  a  lovely 
place  in  a  fir  wood  high  up  on  the  moors.  The  house  is  a  wooden  one 
without  any  kind  of  pretension.  The  inside  of  varnished  deal,  no 
upper  story,  no  garden,  and  no  attempt  at  beautifying  inside  or  out. 
There  we  found  the  Comte  de  Paris,  a  lean,  bent,  grisly-bearded  man, 
on  the  wrong  side  of  middle  age,  undistinguished  in  appearance  or 


56  Princess  Helene  de  France  [189! 

manner,  though  courteous  and  amiable,  difficult  to  recognize  as  the 
descendant  of  French  kings  or  the  representative  of  divine  right  in  the 
world.  His  Queen,  a  masculine,  plain  woman. 

"  With  them,  the  flower  of  their  wilderness,  Princesse  Helene  de 
France  et  de  Navarre,  a  tall,  very  tall,  slight  girl  of  immense  charm 
and  distinction,  whom  I  taught  to  play  lawn  tennis  at  Castle  Menzies 
three  years  ago.  She  remembered  it  well  and  was  very  nice  to  me  in 
her  greeting.  She  poured  out  tea  for  us,  and  we  all  sat  down  to  it,  a 
regular  meal  in  the  dining-room.  The  little  conversation  I  had  with 
the  Comte  de  Paris  was  only  about  shooting."  I  saw  them  again  on  the 
1 5th,  when  they  came  to  Castle  Menzies  for  a  great  chasse  of  blue 
hares  on  Shehallion.  "  It  was  close  opposite  Shehallion  on  the  tops 
of  the  hills,  and  to  these  the  hares  were  driven,  poor  timorous  beasts 
of  the  blue  mountain  kind.  We  got  four  hundred  of  them,  a  terrible 
massacre.  The  party  consisted  of  the  Comte  and  Comtesse  de  Paris, 
with  three  French  gentlemen  of  their  suite,  of  Wagram,  the  Prince  de 
Broglie,  Lord  Crawford  and  his  son  Balcarres,  Algy  Grosvenor,  God- 
frey Webb,  Needham,  and  me.  The  Comtesse  de  Paris  shoots  well.  I 
walked  the  last  two  miles  across  the  moor  with  her  and  saw  her  kill  a 
brace  of  strong  flying  driven  grouse  in  excellent  style.  She  marches 
over  the  heather  like  a  grenadier,  shouts  at  the  beaters,  and  jokes  in 
rough  country  fashion  with  those  near  her.  The  Comte  is  equally 
without  pretence.  They  are  addressed  as  Monseigneur  and  Madame 
—  sometimes,  but  rarely,  as  Altesse  —  their  conversation  a  long  se- 
quence of  royal  commonplace.  They  are  full  of  bonhomie.  Coming 
to  the  high  road  on  our  way  home  a  gipsy  woman  stopped  the  Count, 
and  he  gave  her  two  sixpences. 

"  2oth  Sept. —  At  i,  came  the  Comte  and  Comtesse  de  Paris,  and 
the  little  Princess  looking  lovely  in  a  hat  with  pink  flowers.  I  was  put 
next  her  at  luncheon,  and  we  talked  all  the  time,  Balcarres  being  on 
her  right  hand.  We  talked  about  the  East,  and  she  promised  to  come 
to  Egypt  and  that  I  should  be  her  dragoman  and  take  her  to  Mount 
Sinai.  She  told  me  about  her  life  at  home  at  Stowe,  where  she  rides 
and  hunts  with  the  Duke  of  Grafton's  hounds,  and  at  Loch  Kinnaird 
where  she  walks  about  the  hills  alone  each  summer  with  her  dogs.  I 
asked  her,  '  Have  you  no  governess  with  you  ? '  'I  should  like  to  see 
the  governess,'  she  said,  '  who  would  undertake  to  look  after  me.'  And 
she  looked  proudly  out  of  her  blue  eyes.  In  Spain,  where  they  spend 
part  of  their  winters  near  Seville,  they  hunt  wild  camels  on  horse- 
back. We  talked,  too,  about  her  brother,  the  Due  d'Orleans'  imprison- 
ment at  Paris,  and  mine  in  Ireland." 

On  my  way  back  south  I  paid  a  first  visit  to  the  Glen,  where  most 
of  the  Tennant  family  were,  assembled,  though  Margot  was  away. 
Lucy  and  Charty,  however,  were  there,  and  I  made  great  friends  with 


1891]  First  Visit  to  the  Glen  57 

old  Lady  Tennant,  a  quiet  little  old  lady,  very  well  dressed,  active  and 
alert,  whom  I  found  exceedingly  pleasant  and  conversable,  with  a 
heart  overflowing  with  kindness.  She  showed  me  a  book  about  Souls, 
which  gives  diagrams  of  the  various  kinds  of  souls,  the  surface  soul,  the 
deep  soul,  and  the  mixed  soul,  half -clever,  half -childish  (the  book  had 
something  to  do,  I  think,  with  the  name  given  to  the  set  of  which  her 
daughters  were  such  notable  members). 

"  Talking  about  Gladstone,  she  tells  me  that  Gladstone's  grand- 
father lived  in  this  neighbourhood  at  Peebles.  He  was  a  baker,  spelling 
his  name  Gladstanes,  but  known  locally  as  '  licht  bap,'  on  account  of  his 
selling  his  bread  at  false  weight,  '  bap '  being  the  name  of  a  kind  of 
loaf.  After  luncheon  we  all  drove  to  Traquhair,  an  interesting  old 
house  much  fallen  into  decay,  the  present  owner  taking  no  interest  in 
it.  We  were  shown  over  the  rooms  by  his  brother,  who  might  have 
been  one  of  Scott's  Osbaldistones.  The  family  pedigrees  were  lying 
littered  round  the  library,  hardly  legible  for  damp. 

"  $oth  Sept. —  To  Kelmscott  Manor,  to  wish  the  Morrises  good-bye 
for  the  winter.  It  was  very  perfect  weather  and  we  did  our  gudgeon 
fishing  and  took  our  walks  as  usual  there.  Jenny  is  better  than  she 
has  been  for  several  years.  Her  devotion  to  her  father  is  most  touch- 
ing and  his  to  her.  Morris  in  high  feather.  He  read  us  out  several 
of  his  poems  of  his  best,  including  '  The  Haystack  in  the  Floods,'  but 
his  reading  is  without  the  graces  of  elocution.  He  did  it  as  if  he  were 
throwing  a  bone  to  a  dog,  at  the  end  of  each  piece  breaking  off  with 
'  There,  that's  it,'  as  much  as  to  say,  '  You  may  take  it  or  leave  it,  as 
you  please.'  He  is  to  lecture  on  art  at  Birmingham  on  Friday.  Politi- 
cally he  is  in  much  the  same  position  as  I  -am.  He  has  found  his 
Socialism  impossible  and  uncongenial,  and  has  thrown  it  wholly  up 
for  art  and  poetry,  his  earlier  loves.  I  fancy  I  may  have  influenced 
him  in  this." 

The  early  autumn  saw  me  once  more  in  Paris,  where  the  unrest  of 
the  military  party  which  had  given  Boulanger  his  chance  two  years 
before,  a  chance  which  he  had  failed  to  take,  had  given  place  to  apathy. 
"  Poor  Boulanger,"  I  write,  ist  October,  "'has  blown  his  brains  out 
over  the  grave  of  Madame  Bonnemain.  Politically  he  was  -already 
defunct,  and  this  is  a  graceful  and  dramatic  exit " ;  and  a  week  later, 
"  Parnell  is  dead." 

Here  I  spent  my  time,  as  usual,  mostly  at  the  Embassy,  where  Lady 
Salisbury  was  staying  with  her  daughter,  Lady  Gwendolen,  and  her 
sister-in-law,  Lady  Galloway,  both  very  charming  women.  Lady  Salis- 
bury, too,  was  clever  with  much  dry  wit.  I  find  the  following  in  my 
journal :  "  I  sat  between  Lady  Salisbury  and  Lady  Galloway  to-night 
at  dinner,  and  during  it  she  told  us  a  story  of  a  visit  she  had  paid  long 
ago  to  old  Lady  Palmerston,  and  how  Lady  Palmerston  had  baid  to 


58  George  Cur  son  and  Oscar  Wilde  [1891 

her,  a  propos  of  the  bondage  of  social  observances :  *  My  dear  you  will 
some  day  be  in  my  position  (of  Prime  Minister's  wife),  and  when  you 
are  I  advise  you  to  pay  no  visits  at  all.'  '  So  I  never  pay  any,'  she  said, 
'  except  to  the  Foreign  Ambassadresses.  Of  course/  she  added,  '  I 
don't  include  those  of  the  South  American  Republics  or  any  others  of 
the  people  who  live  up  trees.'  " 

The  question  of  the  evacuation  of  Egypt  was  being  a  good  deal  dis- 
cussed at  that  time  in  Paris,  as  the  French  Government,  suspecting  Lord 
Salisbury  of  the  intention,  he  in  fact  had,  of  making  the  Occupation 
there  more  permanent,  was  beginning  to  give  trouble,  and  I  found  both 
Lytton  and  Egerton,  first  Secretary  of  the  Embassy,  an  old  friend  of 
mine,  who  did  much  of  the  work  of  the  Embassy,  and  had  been  acting 
as  Charge  d'Affaires  during  Lytton's  absence  on  leave  during  the  sum- 
mer, anxious  to  hear  what  I  had  to  say  on  the  subject,  and  I  discussed 
it  thoroughly  with  both.  I  had  learned  from  my  Egyptian  friend, 
Sanua,  who  had  just  been  at  Constantinople  and  had  had  an  interview 
with  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid,  that  the  Sultan  had  declared  positively  to 
him  that  he  would  take  action  to  enforce  the  evacuation.  There  was 
a  perfect  understanding  now  between  the  Turkish  Government  and  the 
French,  probably  also  the  Russian  Government,  who  had  repented  the 
pressure  they  had  put  upon  Abdul  Hamid  to  prevent  his  ratifying  the 
Wolff  Convention,  and  were  pressing  the  Sultan  to  re-open  the  ques- 
tion. Lytton,  poor  fellow,  had  returned  to  Paris  from  a  cure  he  had 
been  taking  in  England,  very  seriously  ill,  and  the  doctors  had  enjoined 
upon  him  complete  idleness,  a  remedy  which  would  involve  his  giving 
up  his  Embassy,  but  he  was  interested  in  what  I  told  him,  and  asked 
me  to  write  him  a  memorandum  on  the  whole  subject  of  Egypt,  and 
especially  that  I  should  discuss  it  with  Egerton.  This  I  did  and  found 
Egerton  strongly  in  favour  of  my  views.  "  To  my  surprise  he  told 
me  that  he  was  in  favour  of  evacuating  Egypt  seeing  the  pledges  that 
had  been  given.  '  We  have  managed,'  he  said,  '  to  set  everybody  there 
against  us  except  that  stupid  fool  the  Khedive  who  counts  for  nothing,' 
and  urged  me  strongly  not  only  to  write  but  to  publish  my  memorandum, 
if  only  anonymously  in  the  '  Times.' '''  Later  (the  same  day,  27th 
October)  I  saw  George  Curzon  who  is  staying  in  Paris  with  Condy 
Stephens.  He,  Curzon,  of  course,  talks  all  the  other  way,  and  says 
the  whole  Conservative  party  will  oppose  evacuation  tooth  «nd  nail. 
I  breakfasted  with  him,  Oscar  Wilde,  and  Willy  Peel,  on  which  oc- 
casion Oscar  told  us  he  was  writing  a  play  in  French  to  be  acted  in 
the  Frangais.  He  is  ambitious  of  being  a  French  Academician.  We 
promised  to  go  to  the  first  representation,  George  Curzon  as  Prime 
Minister.  A  day  or  two  later,  with  Lytton's  approval  and  Egerton's, 
I  gave  my  memorandum  to  Blowitz  (the  "  Times  "  correspondent),  and 
it  appeared  in  due  course  in  the  "  Times  "  without  my  name,  and  ac- 


1891]  Lord  Lytton's  Death  at  Paris  59 

companied  with  a  leading  article.  Lord  Salisbury,  however,  had  al- 
ready made  up  his  mind,  and  in  a  new  speech  reiterated  his  intention 
to  remain  in  Egypt.  "  Lytton,"  I  write,  nth  November,  "  is  delighted 
with  Lord  Salisbury's  boldness  in  refusing  to  evacuate.  Egerton  says 
it  is  foolhardy."  1 

It  is  worth  noting  that,  if  Egerton's  view  had  prevailed,  and  our 
quarrel  with  France  had  then  been  solved  on  the  basis  of  our  evacuat- 
ing Egypt,  it  would  in  all  probability  have  forestalled  the  mistake  made 
twelve  years  later  of  effecting  the  reconciliation,  through  the  fatal  error 
of  basing  it  on  "  compensating  "  France  by  encouraging  her  seizure  of 
Morocco.  The  Entente  with  France,  begun  in  1904  by  an  act  of  ag- 
gression on  a  harmless  neighbour,  involved  France  necessarily  in  a 
quarrel  with  Germany,  who  had  earmarked  Morocco  as  her  share  of 
the  plunder  of  North  Africa;  it  revived  at  Paris  the  half-forgotten 
dream  of  a  guerre  de  revanche  for  Alsace-Lorraine,  and  strengthened 
the  war  party  on  both  sides  the  Rhine.  England  it  involved  in  the 
Entente  with  Russia,  cemented  with  the  betrayal  of  a  second  weak 
Mohammedan  state,  Persia,  and  drove  progressive  Turkey,  in  fear  of 
a  third  betrayal,  into  an  alliance  with  Kaiser  Wilhelm. 

I  left  Paris  a  few  days  later  for  Rome  and  Cairo.  During  the  fort- 
night that  I  had  been  at  the  Embassy,  Lytton's  condition  had  rapidly 
grown  worse,  and  when,  on  the  I3th  of  November,  I  was  taken  in  to 
where  he  lay  in  bed  to  say  good-bye,  I  felt  that  our  farewell  might  be 
the  last.  "  Give  my  love  to  Dufferin,"  were  his  last  words,  "  when 
you  are  at  Rome  —  that  he  always  has  —  and  tell  him  I  am  a  wreck, 
but  do  not  mean  to  make  a  vacancy  yet."  And  so  we  said,  God  bless 
you  and  good-bye.  It  was  less  than  a  fortnight  later  (25th  November, 
at  Fogliano)  that  a  telegram  reached  me,  forwarded  through  Lord 
DufFerin  at  Rome,  from  Paris,  telling  me  that  my  friend  had  died. 
His  death  was  a  loss  I  can  hardly  estimate,  and  to  many  more  than 
me,  for  by  the  public  in  Paris  it  was  looked  on  as  a  State  calamity. 
He  had  managed  to  make  himself  beloved  there  as  no  English  ambas- 
sador had  been  since  Waterloo,  and  as  Dufferin,  who,  as  had  been  ex- 
pected, succeeded  him,  with  all  his  great  social  gifts  was  never  able  to 
achieve.  It  was  not  merely  that  Lytton  was  popular,  but  he  was 
beloved.  His  death  was  a  loss  to  the  cause  of  our  good  understanding 
with  France,  and  I  think  to  Egypt  too,  for  though  too  pronounced  an 
Imperialist  to  wish  to  see  England's  hand  over  the  Nile  relaxed,  no 
one  could  so  well  have  settled  the  conditions  of  an  evacuation  as  Lytton 
could  have  done  had  it  been  so  decided.  And  he  placed  value  on  my 
opinion  in  the  matter. 

During  the  few  days  I  spent  at  Rome  that  November  I  attended  a 

1  For  my  memorandum,  see  Appendix  II. 


6o  Sir  William  Harcourt  [1891 

Peace  Congress,  to  which  as  member  of  the  acting  committee  of  the 
Arbitration  and  Peace  Society  I  had  been  invited,  but  I  was  very  un- 
favourably impressed  with  the  Italian  tone  in  regard  to  international 
matters  where  the  rights  of  non-European  nationalities  were  at  stake. 
The  Italians,  like  the  French  and  all  the  Latin  races,  seemed  to  me 
incapable  of  grasping  the  idea,  which  we  in  England  at  any  rate  admit 
in  theory  if  seldom  in  practice,  that  the  nations  outside  the  community 
of  Christian  civilization  have  any  rights  at  all.  I  did  not  speak  on  this 
occasion,  but  I  left  the  meeting  convinced  that  the  establishment  of 
international  peace  if  it  could  be  secured  for  Europe  would  bode  no 
good  for  Africa  or  Asia,  and  that  as  far  as  these  regions  of  the  world 
were  concerned  the  old  proverb  probably  held  good,  "  When  thieves  fall 
out  honest  men  come  by  their  own." 

From  Fogliano  we  went  straight  on  without  returning  to  Rome,  and 
so  by  the  first  boat  to  Alexandria,  reaching  Sheykh  Obeyd  on  7th  De- 
cember, where  we  spent  the  rest  of  the  winter. 

About  the  close  of  the  year  1891,  I  received  the  following  letter  from 
Sir  William  Harcourt  in  answer  to  one  of  mine  from  Paris,  inclosing 
a  copy  of  my  Paris  memorandum.  As  it  is  of  great  importance  I  give 
it  textually  here: 

"  Malwood,  i6th  December  1891. 
"  DEAR  WILFRID  BLUNT, 

"  I  have  not  written  before  to  thank  you  for  your  paper  on  Egypt, 
as  you  sent  me  at  the  time  no  address.  I  was  greatly  impressed  by  the 
ability  and  moderation  of  its  views,  and  the  fulness  with  which  the 
question  was  discussed  in  every  aspect.  I  forwarded  it  to  John  Morley, 
who  entirely  concurred  with  me,  in  the  high  opinion  I  had  formed  of 
its  merits. 

"  The  question  is,  no  doubt,  one  of  great  complexity  and  cannot  be 
rushed.  At  the  same  time  I  have  never  varied  in  my  opinion  of  the 
mischief  and  danger  of  the  continued  occupation,  as  far  as  England  is 
concerned,  and  though  probably  you  will  not  agree  with  me  I  regard 
this  as  by  far  the  most  important  consideration.  It  is  quite  impossible 
for  the  Government  to  take  a  high  line  as  to  occupation  after  the  Drum- 
mond- Wolff  negotiations.  The  whole  thing  is  summed  up  in  a  nutshell 
by  Wolff  in  his  concluding  despatch,  after  the  ratification  by  the  Eng- 
lish Government  of  the  Convention  for  the  Evacuation  in  1887,  within 
the  space  of  three  years.  He  says,  '  It  has  more  than  once  been  sug- 
gested that  England  should  take  permanent  possession  of  Egypt.  This 
would  have  been  violation  of  the  traditional  policy  of  England,  of  her 
good  faith  to  the  Sultan,  and  of  public  law.  In  time  of  peace  it  would 
have  exposed  her  to  constant  jealousy  and  danger.  In  time  of  war,  it 
would  have  been  a  weak  point,  entailing  a  constant  drain  on  her  re- 


1891]  On  the  Evacuation  of  Egypt  61 

sources.     Her  Majesty's  Government  have  disclaimed  all  idea  of  an- 
nexing Egypt  or  of  establishing  a  Protectorate  over  it.' 

"  This  language  was  approved  by  Salisbury,  and  was  a  deliberate 
renewal  in  the  face  of  Europe  of  the  pledges  given  in  1881.  Salisbury 
undertook  to  '  guarantee  the  neutralization  of  Egypt  as  the  mandatory 
of  the  other  Powers,  that  duty  being  regarded  as  a  burden  rather  than 
a  privilege.'  The  great  mischief,  as  you  properly  point  out,  is  that 
since  that  period  the  policy  of  Evelyn  Baring  has  been  to  administer 
the  Government  of  Egypt  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  it  constantly 
less  instead  of  more  able  to  stand  by  itself,  and  so  to  make  the  task  of 
fulfilling  our  obligation  more  rather  than  less  difficult. 

"  I  hope  by  this  time  you  are  enjoying  your  wild  life  in  the  desert. 
We  are  raising  our  rural  tribes  here,  who  are  rallying  round  the  Mahdi 
Schnadhorst  —  but  I  forgot  you  have  sworn  off  British  Politics,  a  wise 
determination  to  which  I  advise  you  to  adhere. 

"Yrs.  sincerely, 
"W.  V.  HARCOURT." 

This  is  a  very  important  letter,  as  it  indicates  doubtless  what  Mr. 
Gladstone's  view  at  the  time  was,  for  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  he 
worked  together  on  questions  of  foreign  policy.  It  is  also  of  im- 
portance as  showing  that  John  Morley  then  shared  their  opinion.  It 
was  a  combination  of  Baring,  and  of  Milner,  acting  under  his  direction 
on  the  London  Press,  with  Rosebery,  that  prevented  an  honest  solution 
of  the  Egyptian  question  when  the  Liberals,  shortly  afterwards,  re- 
turned to  power. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  YOUNG   KHEDIVE  ABBAS 

1892  to  1893 

The  year  1892  opened  with  an  event  which  was  to  prove  a  turning- 
point  in  Egyptian  history,  one  where  a  new  opportunity  was  given  to 
our  Government  of  making  a  fresh  start  in  the  direction  of  that  Na- 
tional Government  on  constitutional  lines,  which  Lord  Dufferin  had 
promised  and  which  might  have  enabled  England  to  withdraw  her  army 
of  occupation  in  agreement  with  the  Sultan,  and  the  Powers  of  Europe, 
but  which  was  once  more  unfortunately  let  slip,  mainly  through  Sir 
Evelyn  Baring's  fault,  who  misjudged  the  character  of  those  with 
whom  he  had  to  deal,  and  found  in  it  only  an  opportunity  of  taking  the 
reins  of  Government  at  Cairo  more  completely  into  his  own  hands. 
On  the  7th  of  January  of  the  new  year  the  Khedive  Tewfik,  still  com- 
paratively a  young  man,  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  died.  He  had 
been  ailing  for  a  few  days  at  his  country  palace  at  Helwan,  and  no  one 
had  at  all  foreseen  what  was  to  happen.  In  the  common  view  of  native 
Egypt  he  was  supposed  to  have  been  poisoned,  the  memory  of  such 
doings  for  political  reasons  being  still  strong  in  the  popular  mind, 
though,  in  fact,  it  was  a  natural  death  hastened  only  by  the  mistake 
of  the  doctors  called  in  to  attend  him. 

"  Qth  Jan.  1892. —  Yesterday  at  eleven  o'clock  Mutlak  (our  Bedouin 
horse  rider),  came  to  me  and  told  me  that  the  Khedive  was  dead,  and 
immediately  afterwards  Mohammed  Nassr  the  Berberi  porter  repeated 
the  news,  '  It  is  Husseyn  Pasha  the  Prince,'  the  latter  said,  '  who  has 
done  it,  I  was  in  his  service,  and  he  is  a  son  of  sin,  ibn  el  haram.'  On 
the  roof,  old  Ali,  the  plasterer,  who  is  a  Halimist,  and  had  just  been  to 
the  station  at  Matarieh  for  gossip,  remarked  with  a  wink  to  me,  '  Are 
you  not  going  to  the  funeral  ? '  and  he  went  through  the  pantomime  of 
drinking  a  cup  of  coffee  (meaning  he  had  been  poisoned).  This  morn- 
ing he  tells  me  about  it  more  precisely.  '  It  is  the  Dowlah  that  did  it 
(the  Sultan's  Government).  Mukhtar  had  advised  Tewfik  many  times 
to  try  a  change  of  air,  for  the  air  of  Egypt  did  not  agree  with  him, 
but  he  would  not  listen.'  I  asked  the  old  man  whether  he  meant  that 
Mukhtar  had  had  it  done.  '  Oh,  no,'  he  said,  '  they  have  sent  some- 
body on  purpose  from  beyond  the  water'  (from  Stamboul).  It  cer- 

62 


1892]  Death  of  the  Khedive  Tewfik  63 

tainly  looks  suspicious.  They  hurried  on  the  funeral  with  extravagant 
haste.  Tewfik  died  at  8  p.m.  on  Thursday,  and  was  buried  the  next 
afternoon,  Friday.  The  palace  physician  gave  his  certificate  that  the 
death  was  a  natural  one ;  no  European  doctor  examined  the  body.  It 
takes  us  back  to  the  good  old  times. 

"  For  the  interests  of  the  Egyptians  I  cannot  pretend  to  be  sorry. 
I  was  talking  on  Monday  to  Mohammed  Moelhi,  and  we  agreed  that 
it  was  hopeless  to  look  for  any  improvement  as  long  as  Tewfik  was  on 
the  throne ;  he  would  never  consent  to  a  reconstruction  of  the  National 
Party  or  work  with  the  Constitution ;  latterly  he  had  gone  over  very 
much  to  the  French.  Of  the  prince  heritier  Abbas,  Mohammed  said 
he  was  very  anti-English,  though  too  young  to  have  fixed  opinions. 
A  Constitution  might  be  possible  with  him  if  strongly  supported  for  a 
few  years  by  England.  Lord  Salibury  will  have  his  hand  forced,  to 
make  a  settlement  of  the  Egyptian  question,  and  I  am  glad  of  it,  as  the 
English  Liberals  cannot  be  trusted  to  protect  native  interests  here,  and 
would  probably  hand  over  the  Protectorate  in  all  but  name  to  the 
French.  I  have  not  seen  any  European  yet,  so  do  not  know  how  Baring 
takes  the  event." 

"  loth  Jan. —  Went  in  to  Cairo  to  see  Baring,  and  had  a  few  min- 
utes' conversation  with  him.  I  suggested  that  on  the  accession  of  the 
new  Khedive  there  might  be  a  general  pardon  and  amnesty.  He  said, 
'Perhaps,  but  not  for  those  in  Ceylon.'  'Why  not?'  I  asked.  'I 
understood  from  you  that  it  was  Tewfik's  personal  unwillingness  that 
stood  in  the  way.'  He  answered,  '  Anyhow,  it  cannot  be  done.  They 
(the  exiles)  have  got  nothing  the  matter  with  them,  and  they  only 
want  to  go  to  Cyprus.'  Again  I  asked,  'Why  not  to  Cyprus?'  But 
he  would  not  hear  of  it.  We  talked  about  the  Khedive's  death,  and 
he  told  me  he  had  had  an  inflammation  of  the  kidneys,  and  passed  no 
water  for  forty-eight  hours ;  he  blamed  the  doctors.  '  The  Khedive/ 
he  added,  '  always  had  a  very  bad  entourage.' 

"  Lunched  with  the  Tennants.  They  had  been  to  tea  with  us  on 
the  last  day  of  the  old  year,  and  Margot  had  been  very  charming  and 
very  amusing. 

"  Then  to  Helwan  to  see  Minshawi  Pasha,  and  hear  his  version  of 
the  news.  '  Ah,'  said  Minshawi  (he  was  living  in  a  villa  close  by  the 
Khedivial  palace),  'if  you  had  only  come  to  see  me  a  week  sooner, 
we  should  have  had  the  pleasure  of  making  Tewfik  angry.' 

"  2Oth  Jan. —  Dr.  Abdel  Razak  Bey  came  to  see  me.  He  had  been 
with  Salim  Pasha  a  day  or  two  ago,  who  was  one  of  the  late  Khedive's 
two  doctors.  Salim  had  told  him  that  what  the  Khedive  died  of  was 
in  reality  a  stricture.  Abdel  Razak  speaks  highly  of  the  young  Abbas 
as  well  instructed  and  intelligent,  and  we  discussed  the  new  situation 
Tewfik's  death  must  cause  for  the  Egyptian  National  Party." 


64  The  Young  Khedive  Abbas  Helnti  [1892 

Abdel  Razak  had  been  one  of  Arabi's  personal  friends,  and  one  of 
his  most  level-headed  advisers,  knowing  Europe  well,  and  speaking 
English  as  well  as  French,  a  rare  accomplishment  at  that  time.  By 
his  advice  and  that  of  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu,  who  formed  a  favour- 
able opinion  of  the  young  Khedive  Abbas,  who  now  succeeded  his 
father,  I  decided  that  the  time  was  now  come  for  me  to  make  my 
peace  formally  with  the  Egyptian  Government.  As  long  as  Tewfik 
was  alive  it  had  been  difficult  for  me  to  do  this.  I  had  taken  too 
prominent  a  part  in  the  revolution,  and  had  denounced  Tewfik  too 
openly  after  it  to  make  it  possible  for  me  to  take  any  step  towards 
a  reconciliation  or  pay  my  respects  to  him  by  calling  at  the  palace.  But 
it  was  now  thought  by  my  friends  that  I  should  do  well  in  asking  an 
audience  of  his  successor,  and  I  consequently  asked  Baring  to  present 
me  formally  to  Abbas,  as  was  the  custom  in  the  case  of  other  English- 
men visiting  Egypt.  In  pursuance  of  this  resolve  I  find  in  my  diary : 

"  ist  Feb. —  Went  into  Cairo  with  Anne  and  lunched  with  the  Bar- 
ings, and  was  taken  by  Baring  afterwards  to  call  upon  the  Khedive 
Abbas  at  the  Abdin  Palace.  It  is  rather  more  than  eleven  years  since 
I  had  paid  just  such  another  visit  to  Tewfik  with  Malet.  When  we 
were  shown  in  to-day  we  were  met  at  the  door  of  the  room  by  a  little 
young  man  in  military  undress  whom  I  took  to  be  an  Aide-de-Camp, 
but  who  turned  out  to  be  Abbas  himself,  a  quite  unmilitary  figure  of 
proportions  which  made  him  look  like  a  woman  dressed  up  in  man's 
clothes.  He  has,  however,  a  very  good  manner  in  talking,  ancj  a  pleas- 
ant smile,  with  brown  eyes,  and  just  a  tinge  of  russet  in  his  hair.  He 
reminded  me  much  of  his  grandfather,  Ismail,  and  has  just  the  same 
sort  of  French  accent,  talking  French  well  but  not  perfectly.  He 
showed  no  sign  of  shyness,  and  treated  Baring  with  easy  politeness, 
without  any  sign  of  special  deference ;  me  he  treated  with  considerable 
amiability.  We  talked  a  little  about  the  brigandage  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  his  Koubbah  Palace  and  Sheykh  Obeyd  (the  two  places  are 
within  three  miles  of  each  other),  and  then  about  petitions,  and  then 
about  certain  receptions  and  ceremonies,  nothing  at  all  interesting,  but 
I  thought  he  showed  considerable  intelligence,  and  there  was  a  slight 
touch  of  sarcasm  in  his  talk  reminding  me  very  especially  of  Ismail. 
I  shall  be  surprised  if  he  does  not  give  Baring  trouble.  He  is  said 
about  here  to  be  very  anti-English,  but  Baring  will  not  hear  a  word  of 
this,  though  I  expect  it  is  true."  So  far  my  journal.  My  recollection, 
however,  goes  further  than  this.  It  is  that  Baring's  manner  on  this 
occasion  was  very  abrupt,  like  that  of  a  schoolmaster  to  a  schoolboy, 
and  that  on  our  way  back  from  the  palace  I  remarked  to  him  that  I 
thought  the  Khedvve  would  not  bear  driving  with  any  but  a  very  light 
rein,  his  answer  oeing  that  it  was  necessary  to  treat  Orientals  firmly; 
also  I  warned  him  he  would  have  trouble. 


1892]'  Gladstone  Returns  to  Office  65 

"I  have  written  to  Sir  William  Harcourt  to  tell  him  of  Tewfik's 
death  and  my  impressions  of  Abbas,  and  to  urge  him  to  push  forward 
Constitutional  Government  in  Egypt." 

We  left  Egypt  soon  after  this  and  were  back  in  England  by  the 
middle  of  April. 

The  summer  that  followed,  like  the  last,  I  devoted  more  to  literature 
and  society  than  to  politics.  My  daughter  Judith  was  now  being 
brought  out  in  society,  and  though  I  did  not  attend  many  of  her  balls 
and  parties,  it  was  a  distraction  for  me  from  serious  work.  There  is 
very  little  of  my  diary  connected  with  politics  until  the  middle  of 
August,  when  the  general  elections  took  place,  which  resulted  in  a 
moderate  triumph  for  the  Liberal  party,  and  Lord  Salisbury's  retire- 
ment from  office  in  favour  once  more  of  Gladstone.  In  the  meanwhile 
there  are  a  few  entries  in  my  journal  worth  transcribing : 

"  gth  May. —  Called  on  Lady  Gregory,  and  found  her  sad  in  her 
widow's  weeds.  Sir  William  died  during  the  winter. 

"  I  have  finished  '  Griselda,'  and  the  Arabic  ballads,  and  '  The  Steal- 
ing of  the  Mare,'  and  am  publishing  an  article  on  Lytton  as  a  Poet  in 
the  '  Nineteenth  Century.' 

"  iSth  May. —  Riding  in  the  park  I  was  joined  by  Frederic  Harrison, 
who  told  me  he  had  been  converted  to  Islam  as  a  living  religion,  and 
offered  to  support  my  candidature  if  I  would  come  forward  as  a 
Mohammedan  at  the  elections. 

"  iqth  May. —  To  lunch  with  Sir  William  Harcourt.  The  old  man 
was  very  communicative  both  about  Egypt  and  about  Ireland.  As  to 
the  former  he  is  for  evacuation,  but  is  sound  about  not  giving  the 
country  up  to  France.  He  asked  me  about  the  Soudan  danger,  about 
which  I  reassured  him ;  then  as  to  whether  it  would  not  be  possible  to 
occupy  the  Suez  Canal  only.  I  said  I  thought  it  would  be  quite  pos- 
sible. He  would  not  hear  of  allowing  the  Sultan  to  intervene.  I  told 
him  that  it  would  be  easy  to  constitute  a  Liberal  native  Government 
and  retire.  He  seemed  surprised  to  hear  that  the  land  tax  had  not 
been  reduced.  '  As  to  justice,'  he  said,  '  justice  is  only  a  question  of 
personalities  in  any  country.'  Next  we  discussed  Ireland.  He  said, 
'  I  am  afraid  there  is  no  doubt  we  shall  be  in  office  after  the  elections, 
and  then  our  troubles  will  begin.  The  Irish  are  impossible ;  they  are 
split  up  into  four  sections,  and  there  is  no  leader  among  them  to  treat 
with.'  We  went  through  the  various  prominent  men  in  the  Irish  party, 
and  he  asked  me  about  Dr.  Walsh  and  Dr.  Crook,  also  about  Persico's 
mission,  and  the  politics  of  the  Vatican.  I  gather  from  him  that  the 
Home  Rule  Bill  will  be  no  simple  matter,  and  that  he  is  not  personally 
much  interested  in  it.  He  spoke  severely  of  the  individual  Irish  lead- 
ers. 

"  2Oth  May. —  To  the  Frederic  Harrisons.    We  had  a  long  talk 


66  Frederic  Harrison  on  Comte  [1892 

about  Egypt,  and  agreed  that  the  best  chance  of  getting  an  honest  policy 
of  evacuation  would  be  to  prevent  Rosebery's  returning  to  the  Foreign 
Office.  Harrison  thinks  that  Rosebery  will  either  not  join  Gladstone's 
Ministry,  or  make  it  a  condition  that  the  status  quo  in  Egypt  should 
be  continued.  On  Ireland  he  is  quite  pessimistic,  considers  Home  Rule 
for  the  present  a  lost  cause,  and  the  G.O.M.  destined  to  retire  from 
public  life  discredited.  Morley  would  follow  him,  and  there  would 
then  be  a  reconstruction  of  the  Liberal  party  under  Rosebery,  Chamber- 
lain, Harcourt,  and  Randolph.  He  thinks,  nevertheless,  that  Ireland 
would  some  day  or  other  get  its  independence,  while  I  maintained 
that  the  tendency  of  progress  was  towards  the  amalgamation  of 
nations,  not  their  separation.  To  this  he  said,  '  You  know  we,  the 
Positivists.  believe  that  in  the  next  century  there  will  be  one  hundred 
and  fifty  separate  States  in  Europe,'  but  Mrs.  Harrison  dissented, 
and  I  should  fancy  that  his  faith  in  the  Comtist  prediction  is  not  very 
solid. 

"  2yd  May. —  I  am  staying  at  Babraham  with  the  Adeanes,  and 
went  to-day,  with  Adeane,  to  Gogmagog  to  see  the  pictures  of  the  God- 
olphin,  and  other  Arabians,  and  the  former's  grave.  The  original  por- 
trait of  the  Godolphin,  which  is  there,  is  of  a  second-rate  Arab,  with  a 
heavy  head,  lop  ears,  and  a  drooping  quarter.  It  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand that  race-horses  should  have  sprung  from  his  loins.  The  view 
from  Gogmagog  over  the  plain  is  grand,  but  the  house  is  mean,  though 
beloved  of  its  ducal  owner.  In  the  afternoon  to  Audley  End,  a  stately 
place,  but  unfortunately  cleaned  up,  plate  glassed,  and  adorned  in  recent 
years. 

"  24th  May. —  Dined  with  Philip  Currie  in  Connaught  Place,  Mrs. 
Singleton  doing  the  honours.  I  sat  between  Mrs.  Algy  Grosvenor  and 
Oscar  Wilde.  Beyond  Oscar  Mrs.  Singleton,  then  Godfrey  Webb. 
There  were  also  Lady  Ducane  and  a  daughter,  Lady  Sykes,  Lady  Bar- 
ing, just  made  a  peeress,  O'Connor1  and  Trench,  diplomats,  and  three 
or  four  more.  Oscar  was  in  good  form,  and  he  and  I,  Philip  and 
O'Connor  sat  up  till  half-past  twelve  talking  when  the  rest  were 
gone. 

"  2$th  May. —  To  a  meeting  at  Lord  Cowper's,  respecting  a  memorial 
for  Lytton.  Lord  Salisbury  was  present,  and  made  an  inappropriate 
proposal  (as  I  thought)  that  the  monument  should  be  placed  in  the 
India  Office.  Alfred  Austin  opposed  this  on  literary  grounds,  and  I 
seconded  him,  asking  that  the  Committee  should  first  try  for  a  place, 
however  small,  in  the  Abbey.  I  am  quite  sure  this  would  have  been 
Lytton's  own  wish,  for  he  cared  far  more  for  his  position  as  a  poet 
than  for  all  the  rest. 

"4th  June. —  Took  Judith  to  lunch  at  Hammersmith.     Morris  in 

1  Afterwards  Ambassador  at  Constantinople. 


1892]  Baron  de  Staal  67 

good  talk,  told  us  he  had  never  in  all  his  life  been  owner  of  a  dog,  and 
did  not  care  for  pets  —  thought  he  might  perhaps  make  friends  with 
a  horse,  if  he  had  the  time  and  opportunity.  He  showed  us  round 
the  printing  press,  where  his  Golden  Legend  sheets  were  hanging  on 
strings  to  dry,  the  printers  being  away  for  their  Whit  Saturday  after- 
noon. 

"  ^th  June. —  Whit  Sunday  at  Crabbet.  Staal  the  Russian  Ambas- 
sador came  to  lunch  with  his  wife  and  daughter.  He  is  of  all 
foreigners  the  man  with  whom  I  can  talk  most  intimately,  for  we  were 
fast  friends  thirty-three  years  ago  at  Athens,  he  then  thirty-seven,  I 
eighteen.  Now  he  is  seventy,  I  fifty-one ;  yet  we  talked  just  as  of 
old,  and  I  doubt  if  we  feel  much  older.  He  was  never  a  young  man, 
even  in  those  days. 

"  Jth  June. —  To  Mark  Napier's  at  Fulham.  Mark  was  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves, working  at  the  building  of  a  steam  launch  he  is  constructing 
with  his  own  hands  in  the  upstairs  drawing-room  of  Little  Mulgrave 
House,  a  beautiful  room  of  the  last  century,  full  of  china  and  bric-a- 
brac,  perhaps  the  most  incongruous  building  yard  ever  chosen.  The 
difficulty  will  be  to  get  the  boat  out  of  the  window  when  finished.  A 
large  circular  saw  stood  in  the  dining-room  downstairs.  [The  boat 
was  safely  launched,  nevertheless.] 

"  2Oth  June. —  Breakfast  with  George  Wyndham  and  Sibell.  George 
and  I  discussed  the  prospects  of  the  General  Election.  He  says  the 
most  optimistic  Tory  calculation  is  14  majority,  while  Loulou  Har- 
court  and  the  Liberals  count  on  100  for  their  majority. 

"  $th  July. —  At  Kelmscott  Manor.  I  came  here  yesterday.  Morris 
in  fine  spirits,  and  inexhaustible  energy  over  his  new  hobby,  the  print- 
ing press.  He  is  beginning  a  Chaucer,  and  there  is  great  discussion 
whether  it  is  to  be  printed  in  single  or  double  column.  I  am  much  in 
favour  of  the  single  column.  Burne  Jones  is  to  do  illustrations.  I 
forgot  to  say  that  I  was  at  Merton  last  week  with  the  Morrises,  when 
we  saw  a  brother  of  his,  working  in  the  dye  vats  there,  a  dreamy  man 
in  workman's  clothes,  with  his  shirt  sleeves  turned  up,  and  his  arms 
blue  with  indigo  to  the  elbows.  I  asked  Morris  about  him  and,  he 
tells  me  that  having  begun  life  with  a  good  fortune  —  he  had  a  country 
place  in  Herefordshire  —  he  has  gradually  fallen  in  the  world,  and 
after  trying  one  thing  and  another  to  get  a  living  is  now  glad  to  be 
employed  on  weekly  wages.  He  lives  at  Merton,  and  is  quite  happy, 
indeed  he  looked  so,  dipping  wool  all  day  in  the  vats,  in  a  shed  open  on 
to  the  garden.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  nearest  thing  to  a  conventual  life 
which  can  be  found  in  the  lay  world.  We  walked  to-day  in  the  mead- 
ows by  the  river. 

"  6th  July. —  The  elections  are  going  not  too  well  for  Gladstone,  and 
though  he  will  probably  get  a  majority,  I  fear  Home  Rule  is  doomed. 


68  Gladstone  Re-elected  [1892 

Ireland  will  never  have  a  chance  again.  On  all  other  grounds  I  am 
glad,  and  so  is  Morris,  but  politics  are  a  weary  thing.  I  read  him  part 
of  '  The  Stealing  of  the  Mare,'  which  he  approves,  and  advises  me  to 
publish,  though  he  says  nobody  will  read  it ;  and  he  read  us  some  of  his 
own  Scandinavian  translations  in  return. 

"  i$th  July. —  Mark  Napier  has  got  into  Parliament,  I  am  glad  to 
see.  Gladstone's  majority  will  now  be  50  or  more.  Lord  Salisbury, 
George  tells  me,  will  meet  Parliament,  and  will  not  retire  till  a  vote  of 
want  of  confidence  has  been  passed.  Gladstone's  personal  majority  in 
Midlothian  only  650. 

"  iqth  July. —  Gladstone  has  now  a  majority  of  46  in  the  new  House 
of  Commons.  I  have  not  voted  at  all  in  this  election,  or  taken  any 
part. 

"  2yd  and  2$th  July. —  Meeting  of  the  Crabbet  Club,  those  present 
were: 

George  Wyndham.  Charles  Laprimaudaye. 

George  Curzon.  Harry  Cust. 

Nigel  Kingscote.  Hubert  Howard. 

Charles  Gatty.  George  Leveson  Gower. 

Theobald  Mathew.  Dick  Grosvenor. 

Godfrey  Webb.  Mark  Napier. 
Loulou  Harcourt. 

George  Wyndham  performed  a  wonderful  feat,  writing  a  long  poem 
in  a  most  complicated  metre,  and  full  of  excellent  things  in  hardly 
more  than  an  hour,  between  sets  of  lawn  tennis.  Cust  wrote  another 
under  like  conditions,  so  full  of  wit  that  we  nearly  gave  him  the  prize. 
George  Leveson  was  also  good.  The  tennis  handicap  was  won  by 
Hubert  Howard,  the  laureateship  by  Mathew.  Hubert  won  the  cup 
through  Grosvenor's  magnanimity,  who  having  the  last  set  in  hand 
suddenly  found  himself  lame  and  retired.  Cust  is  interesting,  and  of 
great  abilities.  George  Leveson  a  delightful  butt,  and  cause  of  wit  in 
others  with  untouchable  good  humour.  These  occasions  are  the  salt 
of  life. 

"  26th  July. —  To  Hamilton  Aide's  at  Ascot  to  meet  Lady  Brooke, 
the  Ranee  of  Borneo.  She  is,  or  rather  has  been,  a  fine,  fair  woman, 
and  is  now  perhaps  thirty-seven,  living  in  England  away  from  her 
husband,  Aide  tells  me,  because  he  prefers  other  wives.  I  have  had  a 
good  deal  of  conversation  with  her  about  native  races  and  European 
civilization.  I  have  sent  in  my  proofs  of  '  Esther,'  finally  corrected, 
with  five  of  the  sonnet-stanzas  cut  out.  George  Wyndham  thinks  the 
poem  will  not  greatly  suffer,  though  he  regrets  it. 

"  1st  Aug. —  Dined  at  the  Gerald  Balfours,  Betty  charming,  and  a 
very  gay  evening,  the  other  guests  being  Lady  Frances  Balfour,  clever, 


1892]  Gerald  Balfour  69 

but  with  much  of  her  father's  assertive  manner,  Eustace  Balfour, 
Alfred  Lyall,  and  Margot  Tennant,  the  conversation  all  the  evening 
very  brilliant,  but  it  is  useless  trying  to  reproduce  it.  I  sat  on  a  sofa 
with  Margot,  she  with  a  fan  made  of  an  eagle's  wing.  I  have  sent  a 
letter  to  Sir  William  Harcourt  about  Egypt,  the  moment  seeming  to 
have  arrived." 

There  are  many  other  interesting  entries  of  about  this  date,  but 
they  are  none  of  them  quite  germane  to  the  subject  of  this  volume, 
unless  it  is  the  following,  which  illustrates  the  growth  among  ourselves 
in  England  of  those  doctrines  of  supermanity  and  imperial  selfishness 
which  we  have  since  ascribed  to  a  German  origin,  and  denounce  among 
the  prime  causes  of  our  war  with  Germany  in  1914.  It  was  at  the 
time  a  surprise  to  me  as  an  avowal  by  a  man  of  personal  amiability  of 
ruthless  principles  which  I  found  later  to  be  common  enough  among 
my  ultra  imperialist  friends. 

"  ^th  Aug. —  To  Cromer  with  Anne  and  Judith,  Betty  Balfour  also 
travelling  with  us  with  her  children.  We  are  staying  with  Frederick 
Locker  in  his  wife's  villa.  Gerald  Balfour  joined  us  in  the  evening. 

"  6th  Aug. —  Sat  in  the  garden  with  Betty  looking  over  her  father's 
papers  (some  of  which  she  has  a  design  to  print)  and  talking  about 
him.  Gerald  is  a  very  pretty  tennis  player,  and  has  been  at  hard 
exercise  all  day  at  it  and  golf.  I  like  him  better  now  that  I  know  him 
better. 

"  ^th  Aug.  (Sunday}  — Drove  with  the  Balfours  and  Conny  Lytton 
to  Blickling,  where  we  lunched.  On  the  way  we  had  a  grand  discussion 
about  patriotism,  Gerald  maintaining  that  patriotism  was  the  imperial 
instinct  in  Englishmen,  who  should  support  their  country's  quarrels 
even  when  in  the  wrong.  This  of  course  is  not  my  view.  Gerald  has 
all  his  brother's  scientific  inhumanity  in  politics,  and  it  is  a  school  of 
thought  distinctly  on  the  increase,  for  it  flatters  the  selfish  instincts  of 
the  strong  by  proving  to  them  that  their  selfishness  is  right.  Blickling 
is  a  perfect  place  with  a  very  lovely  garden,  Lady  Lothian  doing  the 
honours  of  it,  and  showing  us  all  round.  There  is  a  small  herd  still  of 
the  wild  white  cattle,  ten  cows  and  a  bull,  with  some  calves.  They 
were  brought  originally,  Lady  Lothian  told  us,  from  a  park  near  Man- 
chester, which  became  engulfed  in  the  town  smoke,  a  herd  then  of  forty 
cows  (the  cowkeeper  said  twenty),  but  they  were  almost  all  destroyed 
at  the  time  of  the  cattle  plague,  some  years  since,  three  cows  being  at 
one  time  all  the  stock  left.  Then  they  got  a  bull  from  a  herd  that  had 
been  drafted,  and  so  gradually  have  restored  the  breed.  Its  charac- 
teristics are  well  marked,  white  with  black  muzzles,  and  the  ears  inside 
black;  the  bull  was  very  fine.  The  herd  is  tame  enough  now,  being 
driven  in  every  afternoon  to  be  milked,  and  the  calves  are  brought  up 
by  hand  in  sheds. 


70  Darwin's  Law  Misunderstood  [1892 

"  Constance,  Lady  Lothian,  I  knew  as  a  very  pretty  woman  thirty 
years  ago,  with  her  invalid  husband  (elder  brother  of  my  friend 
Schomberg  Kerr),  of  whom  a  fine  portrait  exists  by  Watts.  On  our 
way  home  we  renewed  our  argument  as  applied  especially  to  the  Irish. 
'  They  ought  to  have  been  exterminated  long  ago,'  said  Gerald,  '  but  it 
is  too  late  now.'  He  is  confident,  however,  of  defeating  Home  Rule 
by  Constitutional  means." 

Gerald's  argument,  I  recollect,  was  based  on  an  application  to  inter- 
racial politics  of  Darwin's  .law  of  the  selection  of  the  fittest,  or  rather 
of  what  is  an  exaggerated  interpretation  of  that  law.  Those  who  put 
forward  this  view  forget  that  Man  by  the  abnormal  development  of  his 
reasoning  powers  and  -his  invention  of  lethal  weapons,  has  put  himself 
outside  the  unconscious  working  of  the  natural  law.  Darwin  is  in  no 
way  responsible  for  this  application  of  his  doctrine,  as  is  clearly  seen 
in  the  sympathy  he  shows  with  the  backward  races  of  mankind,  es- 
pecially in  his  "  Voyage  of  the  Beagle."  Though  individual  strives 
with  individual  in  the  natural  world,  there  is  never  a  combination  of  a 
whole  species  or  *ace  to  .make  war  with  and  destroy  a  feebler  race. 
This  was  my  argument  with  Gerald.  Three  years  later  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  Lord  Salisbury  and  his  brother  Arthur,  Chief  Secretary  for 
Ireland,  and  proved  a  kindly  ruler  while  in  office  there,  being  by  nature 
an  altogether  amiable,  kind-hearted  man,  but  infected,  as  so  many  of 
our  Imperialists  were  beginning  to  be  at  that  date,  by  the  politico- 
scientific  doctrines  so  crudely  preached  in  Germany. 

On  the  7th  of  August  I  started  on  a  driving  tour,  the  first  of  many 
such  I  made  in  after  years,  taking  the  northern  -road  as  far  as  Streatley, 
then  crossing  the  Berkshire  Downs  westward,  and  travelling  over  grass 
a  quite  uninhabited  country,  "  as  desolate  as  parts  of  Mesopotamia,  and 
in  the  bright  sunlight  very  beautiful,  coveys  of  young  partridges  run- 
ning here  and  there  tamely  in  front  of  the  carriage,  and  so  as  far  as 
Chilton,  where  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  find  entertainmenf  at  the 
rectory  house  of  the  parson,  Morland,  a  worthy  man,  living  alone  in  that 
lonely  place  and  glad  to  see  a  stranger,  a  hospitality  rare  of  its  kind  in 
civilized  England,  and  so  on  to  Kelmscott,  where  I  stayed  a  couple  of 
nights.  I  found  there  my  friend  John  Henry  Middleton,  the  Cambridge 
Professor,  an  old  ally  of  Morris's,  and  intimate  in  former  days  with 
Rossetti.  Middleton  had  been  a  considerable  traveller  in  out-of-the- 
way  places,  and  he  narrated  to  me  in  detail  what  I  had  already  heard 
him  tell,  his  experience  in  Morocco  with  a  Moorish  magician.  This  is 
his  account  of  the  incident: 

"  He  was  travelling  in  1879  about  half  way  between  Tetuan  and 
Morocco,  and  one  evening  an  old  man  came  to  his  camp  mounted  on  an 
ass,  with  a  boy  as  servant.  The  man  said  he  was  a  magician,  and 
proposed  to  perform  three  wonders ;  the  first  to  throw  a  ball  of  twine 


1892]  A  Moorish  Magician  71 

into  the  air,  the  second  to  make  a  plant  grow,  and  the  third  to  show 
the  face  of  a  person  thought  of,  in  a  globe  of  ink.  It  was  already  late, 
and  the  performance  was  put  off  until  the  following  morning  —  the 
magician  remaining  the  night  in  the  camp,  and  in  the  morning  when 
the  tents  were  struck  he  was  invited  to  give  his  performance.  It  was 
an  open  place,  uninhabited,  and  without  trees  or  bushes.  Middleton 
chose  the  ground  at  some  little  distance  from  where  the  camp  had 
been.  The  magician  first  took  from  his  wallet  a  large  ball  of  string, 
large  enough  to  need  both  hands  to  lift  it,  and  having  made  a  long 
incantation  he  tied  the  end  of  the  string  to  one  finger  of  his  left  hand, 
and  then  with  a  great  exertion  threw  the  ball  upwards,  which  unravelled 
as  it  went,  and,  growing  less  and  less,  disappeared  in  the  air.  He  then 
let  go  of  the  string's  end,  which  continued  to  hang  from  the  sky.  The 
magician  and  his  boy  sat  at  a  little  distance,  and  Middleton  went  to 
the  string  and  pulled  it  downwards,  as  you  would  pull  a  bell-rope.  It 
stretched  to  within  about  two  feet  of  the  ground,  but  he  felt  the  re- 
sistance strongly  from  above,  so  much  so  that  he  cut  his  fingers  with 
the  string,  the  mark  remaining  for  several  days  afterwards.  The  five 
men  whom  he  had  with  him  also  touched  the  string,  three  of  these  were 
Moors,  one  a  Berber,  and  the  other  an  interpreter.  It  was  clear  day- 
light at  the  time,  about  half  an  hour  after  sunrise.  When  they  had  all 
satisfied  themselves  that  the  string  was  suspended  as  it  appeared  to 
be,  the  magician  came  forward,  and  in  his  turn  pulled  it,  when  it  fell 
down  from  the  sky  in  coils  on  the  ground ;  he  then  rolled  it  up  again 
into  a  ball,  and  put  it  back  into  his  wallet. 

"  The  magician  next  took  from  his  wallet  a  seed,  and  when  Middle- 
ton  had  chosen  a  bare  place,  planted  it  in  the  ground ;  he  then  asked 
for  some  palm  branches  which  they  had  with  them,  and  which  had  been 
cut  the  day  before,  and  he  made  an  arched  covering  with  them  over  the 
seed  and  heaped  horse  rugs  upon  the  hoops,  and  then  sat  apart  and  made 
incantations.  At  the  end  of  a  few  minutes  he  invited  them  to  undo 
the  covering,  and  there,  in  the  ground,  a  plant  was  growing,  set  firmly 
in  the  earth,  the  first  time  a  few  inches  high,  but  when  he  had  covered 
it  up  again  and  built  the  hoops  higher,  it  at  last  became  three  feet  eight 
inches  high.  Middleton  measured  the  plant,  found  it  firmly  rooted,  and 
cut  off  and  kept  some  of  the  leaves ;  the  nature  of  the  plant  seemed 
to  resemble  that  of  the  Indian  rubber  tree,  and  it  had  some  fifty  leaves. 
It  was  fresh  and  healthy  though  the  weather  was  very  hot,  it  being  the 
month  of  October.  In  the  third  incantation  Middleton  was  made  to 
look  into  a  globe  of  ink.  He  desired  to  see  the  face  of  a  friend,  but 
instead  saw  persistently  and  very  vividly  a  certain  landscape  he  knew 
well  on  the  river  Severn,  near  Tewkesbury.  The  magician  when  asked 
whether  he  could  climb  the  string  and  disappear  in  the  air  (like  the 
magician  Marco  Polo  tells  of),  stated  that  his  grandfather  had  had  the 


72  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti  [1892 

power,  but  that  he  himself  was  unable.  Having  been  rewarded,  he 
mounted  his  ass  and  rode  away.  Middleton  believes  that  the  manifesta- 
tions produced  were  mesmeric,  certainly  no  trick.  The  leaves  of  the 
plant  he  kept  for  some  time,  but  lost  with  other  things  in  a  shipwreck 
on  his  way  home." 

Middleton  had  known  Kelmscott  Manor  in  the  early  days  when 
Rossetti  and  Morris  first  took  the  house  together  at  a  rent  of  £60  a 
year.  The  Tapestry  Room,  which  is  now  the  sitting-room,  used  to 
be  Rossetti's  own  room,  and  it  was  there  that  he  wrote  his  poetry. 
Rossetti,  he  tells  me,  was  addicted  to  loves  of  the  most  material  kind 
both  before  and  after  his  marriage,  with  women,  generally  models, 
without  other  soul  than  their  beauty.  It  was  remorse  at  the  contrast 
between  his  ideal  and  his  real  loves  that  preyed  on  him  and  destroyed 
his  mind.  It  is  touching  to  see  still  on  the  table  at  meals  napkins 
marked  with  the  initials  D.  G.  R.  His  ghost  seems  to  me  to  be  present 
in  all  the  rooms.  From  thence  I  drove  on  to  Stanway,  where  I  found 
Arthur  Balfour,  to  whom  I  narrated  Middleton's  experience  in  Mo- 
rocco, which  interested  him  greatly.  We  had  a  pleasant  time  there, 
and  I  found  Balfour  most  agreeable,  glad  to  be  relieved  of  office,  Salis- 
bury having  just  resigned. 

"  i6th  Aug. —  It  is  announced  that  Rosebery  has  taken  office  after 
all  as  Foreign  Secretary  under  Gladstone.  This  will  neutralise  any 
good  that  might  have  come  of  a  change  of  Government  to  Egypt. 
Rosebery  will  continue  to  represent  the  Bondholders.  Gladstone  has 
made  up  his  Ministry,  every  one  of  them  Whigs.  Asquith  and  Lefevre 
are  the  only  two  who  are  at  all  advanced,  the  rest  quite  of  the  old  gang, 
only  one  surprise.  Houghton  is  to  go  as  Lord  Lieutenant  to  Ireland, 
a  triumph  for  the  Crabbet  Club ! 

"  From  Stanway  on  to  Batsford,  which  is  now  Bertie  Mitford's.  He 
inherited  it  about  five  years  ago  from  his  cousin  Lord  Redesdale,  and 
has  spent  a  vast  amount  of  money  pulling  the  old  house  down  and 
building  a  new  Victorian  Tudor  one.  He  has  also  laid  out  the  grounds 
with  elaborate  rockeries  and  a  multitude  of  trees  and  foreign  shrubs, 
stabling  on  a  vast  scale,  a  stud  of  shire  cart  mares,  the  most  interesting 
feature  of  the  place.  I  remember  Bertie  as  a  very  good-looking  youth, 
three  or  four  years  older  than  myself,  with  a  great  reputation  for 
ability,  much  talent  for  languages,  and  a  player  of  the  cornet  a  piston  — 
this  was  in  1858.  We  went  up  for  an  examination  the  same  day,  he 
for  a  clerkship  in  the  Foreign  Office,  I  for  the  diplomatic  service." 

Thence  (iSth  Aug.)  on  to  The  Glen,  where  I  found  John  Addington 
Symonds  staying  in  the  house,  and  where  I  stayed  ten  days  with  Margot 
and  a  number  of  young  ladies,  a  very  delightful  time,  of  which  my 
diary  is  full,  but  again  this  is  not  the  place  for  it. 


1892]  Visit  to  Hawarden  73 

From  Glen  I  went  to  Saighton,  where  one  incident  occurs  which 
deserves  transcribing: 

"  2nd  Sept. —  After  luncheon  we  drove,  George,  Sibell  and  I,  three  in 
a  row,  in  a  dog-cart  to  Hawarden,  George  having  been  especially  in-» 
vited  there.  We  were  to  meet  the  G.O.M.  at  the  new  library  he  has 
constructed  in  the  village,  a  terrible  building  of  corrugated  iron  over- 
looking the  Sands  of  Dee.  Inside  it  is  conveniently  arranged,  and 
must  be  an  advantage  to  the  inhabitants.  We  were  met  there  by  Mrs. 
Drew,  who  told  us  her  father  would  come  presently,  and  leaving 
George  and  me  took  Sibell  off  with  her  to  the  castle.  While  waiting  in 
the  library  I  was  glad  to  firfld  little  Maud  Gladstone  whom  I  had  known 
as  Maud  Rendel,  and  with  her  we  whiled  away  the  quarter  of  an  hour 
we  had  to  wait.  The  G.O.M.,  when  he  arrived,  was  very  cordial  with 
George,  but  not  as  I  think  with  me.  He  talked  about  his  books  in  the 
absorbed  way  he  has,  going  on,  without  paying  the  least  attention  to 
the  person  he  is  speaking  to,  especially  if  it  is  his  wife  and  she  ventures 
to  interpose  a  remark.  The  ladies  invited  me  to  go  back  with  them, 
and  I  walked  with  Maud,  leaving  George  and  Mr.  G.  to  follow.  She 
showed  me  over  the  house  when  we  arrived,  Mr.  G.'s  '  Temple  of 
Peace,'  and  the  rest  which  I  knew  from  Margot's  description.  There 
were  but  few  old  books,  and  the  modern  ones  were  very  mixed  in 
character.  I  looked  through  the  poetry  shelves  and  found  the  usual 
volumes  of  Tennyson  and  Browning,  etc.  '  In  Vinculis '  was  there 
with  the  leaves  cut  open-,  but  not  the  '  Sonnets  of  Proteus,'  which  I 
had  given  him  in  1884.  Presently  Miss  Helen  Gladstone  came  in,  the 
head  of  Newnham  College,  and  I  had  some  talk  with  her  and  found 
her  agreeable  in  an  austere  way.  Then  the  G.O.M.  arrived  with 
George,  and  we  all  sat  down  to  tea.  I  sat  by  Mrs.  Gladstone,  good  old 
soul,  who  speedily  thawed  to  me,  while  the  G.O.M.  still  went  on  talk- 
ing about  books.  He  had  got  a  rare  edition  of  the  Prayer  Book  and 
made  it  his  text,  with  interludes  of  discussion,  about  the  various  quali- 
ties of  tea.  I  asked  him  what  '  N.  or  M.'  meant  in  the  baptismal 
service,  but  he  could  suggest  no  explanation.  From  that  he  went  on 
to  the  revised  version  of  the  Bible,  which  he  called  '  abominable ' ;  it 
was  not  the  first  duty  of  a  translator  to  be  accurate  but  to  render  the 
spirit  of  the  book.  This  the  revisers  had  missed.  '  You  see,'  inter- 
posed Mrs.  Gladstone,  in  the  tone  of  one  anxious  and  apologetic;  'he 
is  so  conservative,  and  yet  people  say  of  him,  etc.,  etc.'  '  He  has  the 
spirit  of  reverence,'  I  said.  '  Ah  yes/  she  exclaimed,  beaming,  '  that 
is  just  it ;  you  have  said  exactly  what  is  true.'  But  the  old  man  paid 
no  attention  and  went  prattling  on,  talking  of  all  things  in  the  same 
absorbed  way,  apparently  without  sense  of  their  proportion,  and  for 
talking's  sake,  heedless  of  our  remarks,  until  at  last  he  settled  down  into 


74  Gladstone  [1892 

a  '  Quarterly  Review '  article  and  said  no  more.  That,  I  fancy,  is  his 
common  domestic  life. 

"  Mary  Drew's  little  girl  Dorothy  was  there,  running  about  without 
shoes  or  stockings,  and  the  Spitz  dog  which  Margot  had  described  to 
me  and  which  had  brought  in  a  stick  with  it  to  the  drawing-room,  but 
I  did  not  notice  that  Mr.  G.  paid  attention  to  either.  He  did  not  im- 
press me  much  with  the  matter  of  his  conversation,  impressive  as  it 
was  in  manner.  All  he  said  was  essentially  commonplace.  Once  he 
corrected  George  for  pronouncing  '  mythological '  short  as  '  mithologi- 
cal.'  Meanwhile  Mrs.  Gladstone  gave  me  an  account  of  an  adventure 
Mr.  G.  had  had  two  days  before  with  a  cow  in  the  park.  '  It  was  a 
strange  cow,'  she  said,  '  which  had  got  in  by  accident  and  found  itself 
in  Mr.  G.'s  path  as  he  was  walking  alone,  and  when  he  would  have 
driven  it  out  of  his  way,  it  turned  on  him  and  knocked  him  down.  It 
stood  over  him  but  did  not  gore  him.  This,'  said  Mrs.  Gladstone,  '  was 
very  unusual  in  a  cow.  He  tried  to  rise,  but  at  first  he  could  not,  for 
he  had  not  the  breath,  but  afterwards  he  managed  to  get  behind  a 
tree  and  the  cow  trotted  away.'  Poor  old  soul,  she  touched  me  with 
her  devotion  for  him.  Of  himself  I  carried  away  the  mixed  impres- 
sion I  have  had  of  him  before,  one  of  disappointment  at  finding  less 
than  I  should  have  found  to  worship. 

"  Hawarden  House,  the  modern  castle,  is  one  of  the  end  of  last 
century,  very  comfortable  and  nice  inside  with  no  great  pretension  to 
architecture  —  outside  it  is  a  poor  castellated  gothic  structure.  The 
old  castle,  which  stands  in  the  grounds  a  little  way  off,  and  to  which  I 
ran  up  after  tea,  is  a  very  interesting  ruin.  On  the  whole,  we  agreed, 
as  we  drove  home,  that  we  had  enjoyed  our  visit,  and  that  the  pilgrim- 
age had  been  well  worth  making.  The  G.O.M.  saw  Sibell  to  the  door 
himself,  with  Mrs.  Gladstone  and  the  others.  The  younger  men  had 
been  out  shooting  meanwhile  in  the  Park. 

"  i,rd  Sept. —  Travelled  in  the  train  on  my  way  home  with  Frank 
Villiers.  He  has  just  been  made  Private  Secretary  to  Rosebery  at  the 
Foreign  Office,  and  professes  great  admiration  for  him  as  '  a  statesman 
without  personal  ambition.'  We  discussed  the  Egyptian  question  pretty 
thoroughly  and  the  release  of  Arabi.  With  regard  to  evacuation  he 
said  that  everybody  was  agreed  it  would  be  dangerous  and  impossible 
to  hold  Egypt  permanently.  Baring  had  been  doing  what  he  could  to 
prepare  things  for  a  withdrawal  of  the  troops,  but  he  could  find  no  men 
among  the  Egyptians  capable  of  carrying  on  reforms.  Baring  had 
told  them  at  the  Foreign  Office  of  my  idea  of  having  a  Fellah  Min- 
istry, but  could  not  get  capable  men.  He  would  be  very  glad  if  he 
could  find  them,  but  where  were  they?  I  said  that  I  had  given  Baring 
the  names  of  suitable  Fellah  Ministers,  but  that  he  had  told  me  the 
late  Khedive  would  never  consent  to  employ  them.  I  was  at  one  with 


1892]  Cardinal  Manning's  Last  Days  75 

Baring  as  to  the  kind  of  reforms  wanted,  but  disagreed  with  his  way 
of  carrying  them  out  through  Englishmen.  It  could  have  no  other  re- 
sult but  to  make  evacuation  more  and  more  difficult.  '  You  may  wait 
ten  years,'  I  said,  '  and  you  will  find  no  better  occasion  to  evacuate 
than  the  present.  I  mean,  of  course,  if  you  really  wish  it.'  He  assured 
me  over  and  over  again  that  that  was  their  policy  and  their  desire. 
About  Arabi  he  was  not  encouraging,  but  I  am  to  call  Rosebery's  atten- 
tion to  the  matter. 

"  i$th  Sept. —  At  Crabbet.  I  have  seen  Countess  Hoyos  several 
times.  She  rode  here  one  morning,  and  I  have  been  twice  to  tea  at 
Paddockhurst  (their  country  place  in  Sussex,  two  miles  from  Crabbet). 
Her  daughter,  just  married  to  Herbert  Bismarck,  she  tells  me,  is  su- 
premely happy,  having  tamed  her  Bismarck  to  a  point  which  could  not 
have  been  believed.  He  had  been  a  great  coureur  de  femmes,  women 
mainly  of  the  baser  sort,  and  she  has  touched  him  to  an  ideal  love.  He 
is  forty-three,  she  twenty,  a  beautiful  romance. 

"  I  have  had  an  answer  from  Rosebery,  that  is  from  Villiers,  of  a 
most  civil  kind,  but  with  the  usual  official  evasion  of  my  questions.  Sir 
Wilfrid  Lawson  has  also  written. 

"  ijth  Sept. —  A  letter  from  Margot.  She  has  been  paying  visits 
with  her  political  admirers,  Haldane  and  Asquith.  She  describes  all 
in  a  few  words  as  well  as  such  descriptions  could  possibly  be., 

"  Lady  Lytton  was  here  to-day  with  her  girls  to  say  good-bye  before 
starting  for  the  Cape.  Meynell  also,  and  his  wife.  After  dinner  he, 
Meynell,  gave  me  a  most  interesting  account  of  Cardinal  Manning's 
last  days.  Meynell  was  the  old  man's  confidant  in  his  many  disappoint- 
ments and  vexations.  The  Cardinal's  mind  had  grown  large  in  the 
later  years  of  his  life,  and  his  view  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  of 
Christianity,  comprehensive  of  all  sects  and  creeds.  He  was  at  odds 
with  his  fellow  bishops  in  England,  who  looked  upon  him  as  unortho- 
dox, and  worried  him  a  thousand  ways,  and  he  had  no  one  of  them  all 
for  a  friend.  His  last  hours  had  been  troubled  by  the  worries  of  his 
clergy.  There  had  been  a  dispute  between  two  of  the  Bishops,  which 
he  had  referred  to  Rome,  and  which  caused  him  great  annoyance,  and 
when  he  was  taken  ill  the  Bishop  of  Salford  (Herbert  Vaughan,  after- 
wards Cardinal  Vaughan)  was  unfortunately  staying  with  him,  whom 
he  specially  disliked.  His  old  servant  Newman  had  died,  and  there 
was  no  one  to  take  care  of  him.  He  refused  to  believe  that  he  was 
dying,  and  had  a  strong  desire  to  live,  and  Vaughan  was  hard  on  him 
in  his  insistence  on  certain  formalities  demanded  of  a  dying  Archbishop, 
then  having  got  his  way  Vaughan  left  him,  and  he  lay  all  night  alone, 
and  was  found  next  morning  insensible  and  dying,  his  fire  out  in  the 
grate  and  no  one  with  him.  Truly  death  is  bitter  even  to  the  righteous. 

"  Meynell  told  me  also  of  a  new  movement  within  the  body  of  the 


76  Early  Modernism  [1892 

English  Catholic  clergy,  of  the  most  revolutionary  kind,  especially 
among  the  Capuchins,  and  that  the  Cardinal  in  some  measure  sympa- 
thized with  it.  A  movement  of  the  widest  sort,  rationalistic  and  mystic, 
which  embraced  all  forms  of  religion  and  repudiated  the  finality  of  any 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  a  kind  of  positivism  and  creed  of  humanity 
in  which  Plato,  and  Buddha,  and  Mohammed  were  alike  canonized  as 
saints,  and  Christ  himself  hardly  more  than  these.  He  assured  me 
that  such  doctrines  were  widely  held  by  the  younger  priests,  and  that 
some  of  their  most  zealous  and  able  exponents  were  to  be  found  among 
our  monks  at  Crawley.  It  was  no  heresy,  .he  said,  and  the  General  of 
the  Capuchins  who  had  come  from  Rome  to  put  it  down  had  gone 
back  converted.  This  sounds  to  me  altogether  incredible,  but  he  prom- 
ised to  send  me  the  writings  of  the  new  creed  in  print."  [This  was  the 
first  word  I  had  heard  of  the  Modernist  movement,  afterwards  so 
notorious.] 

Mr.  Meynell  tells  me  that  I  unintentionally  misrepresent  the  views 
held  by  Father  Cuthbert  and  his  friends.  "  Not  one,"  he  says,  "of 
that  fervent  group  of  young  Franciscans  but  fixed  all  his  hope  and  all 
his  faith  on  the  doctrine,  fundamental  and  final,  of  the  divinity  ol 
Christ." 

"  iSth  Sept.  (Sunday). —  Meynell's  talk  has  done  me  good.  It  opens 
to  me  a  view  of  a  religious  position,  not  absolutely  illogical,  in  which  I 
may  still  be  loyal  to  all  my  ideas  without  quarreling  with  the  Catholic 
Church.  I  mean  to  talk  the  matter  over  with  Father  Cuthbert,  the 
young  Capuchin  at  our  Monastery,  whom  Meynell  speaks  of  as  the 
leading  light  of  the  new  doctrine. 

"22nd  Sept. —  Lunched  at  the  Travellers'  Club  with  Frank  Bertie, 
whom  I  had  not  seen  for  years,  and  we  had  much  talk  about  men  and 
things  of  a  past  generation.  He  tells  me  Evelyn  Baring  is  seriously 
ill  with  eczema  in  Scotland,  oner  of  the  plagues  with  which  Moses 
afflicted  Pharaoh.  I  hope  it  may  determine  him  to  let  the  Egyptians 
go.  Philip  Currie  was  also  there  and  Sanderson. 

"  26th  Sept. —  Margot  writes  that  she's  starting  a  paper  to  be 
called  '  The  Petticoat,'  in  collaboration  with  Betty  Balfour,  Mrs. 
Horner,  Mrs.  Singleton,  and  other  women  friends. 

"  2jth  Sept. —  On  a  visit  to  Frampton,  a  very  pretty  place  with  a 
house  of  the  early  eighteenth  century,  the  period  I  like  best  for  domes- 
tic architecture.  Our  host,  Brinsley  Sheridan,  is  a  typical  country 
gentleman  given  to  sport ;  his  wife,  a  Motley,  sister  of  Lady  Harcourt, 
with  two  nice  daughters,  and  there  are  sons,  but  all  the  boys  are  at 
school. 

"  There  is  a  Miss  Fetherstonhaugh  staying  in  the  house  who  showed 
me  letters  she  had  received  from  young  de  Winton  from  Uganda, 
written  in  the  mixed  missionary  and  fighting  language  one  is  familiar 


1892]  Morris  and  Magnusson  77 

with  in  Gordon's  letters  to  his  sister.  These  people  believe  they  have 
a  mission  from  God  to  establish  the  British  flag,  '  the  dear  old  Union 
Jack/  throughout  the  world  and  to  maintain  it  there  with  fire  and 
sword.  Pizarro,  no  doubt,  wrote  in  the  same  strain  from  Peru,  when 
he  destroyed  the  beautiful  old  world  of  the  Incas.  Truly  'civiliza- 
tion is  poison.'  Weld  Blundell  also  is  staying  here,  a  clever  man  with 
much  knowledge  and  a  close  reasoner,  with  whom  I  have  been  discuss- 
ing Eastern  questions.  His  view  is  the  commercial  Imperialist  one 
held  by  all  English  civilians  who  have  spent  their  lives  beyond  the 
Suez  Canal,  that  of  seizing  and  keeping  markets.  We  were  to  have 
gone  to  Malwood,  but  Sir  William  Harcourt  has  been  summoned  to 
London  on  the  Uganda  question  and  our  visit  is  deferred. 

"  1st  Oct. —  Lunched  with  Morris  at  Hammersmith  and  his  Icelandic 
friend  Magnusson,  with  whom  he  translates  his  Sagas.  It  is  curious 
how  much  alike  the  two  are  physically  —  short,  thick,  sturdy  men  of 
the  pale-haired,  blue-eyed  type.  Both,  too,  have  the  same  socialistic 
views,  only  Magnusson  is  much  more  professorial  in  his  way  of  talk- 
ing and  less  light  in  hand  than  Morris. 

"  Our  ministers  have  taken  courage  and  Uganda  is  to  be  evacuated. 
The  '  Daily  Telegraph  '  has  a  deliciously  naive  article  in  expostulation : 
'  Uganda,'  it  says,  '  was  a  few  years  ago  a  naked  people,  now  they  are 
all  decently  clad  .  .  .  but  there  is  a  tendency,  wherever  English  au- 
thority is  relaxed  among  them,  to  revert  to  their  old  terrible  habits.' 

"  6th  Oct. —  Tennyson  died  this  morning  at  his  house  on  Blackdown. 
Much  speculation  as  to  his  successor." 

On  the  1 2th  Oct.  I  paid  my  now  annual  visit  to  Gros  Bois,  the  party 
there  being  made  up  of  the  Gustave  Rothschilds,  the  Comte  de  Turenne, 
Lord  and  Lady  Castletown,  and  the  Talbots,  and  we  had  our  usual 
shootings. 

"  I4//1  Oct. —  Coming  home  Wagram  entertained  us  with  episodes 
of  the  French  game  laws.  He  remembers  three  poachers  having  been 
shot  dead  at  various  times  in  the  park,  two  by  himself  and  one  by  the 
keepers.  In  his  own  case  the  man  had  first  fired  on  him.  In  the  third 
case  the  poacher  was  unarmed;  in  none  was  any  inquiry  made.  He 
and  the  keepers  buried  the  dead  men  quietly  where  they  fell.  The  last 
of  these  three  events  happened  as  long  ago  as  1863  and  '  Nobody,'  he 
said,  '  knows  now  where  they  lie  but  myself ;  the  keepers  who  helped  to 
bury  them  are  all  dead ;  it  has  kept  poachers  most  effectually  away. 
En  plaine  (meaning  the  open  fields)  one  does  not  take  justice  thus  to 
oneself,  but  inside  the  Park  it  is  best  to  do  so  and  say  nothing.' 
Wagram  is  a  fine  survival  of  the  old  sporting  days  in  France,  against 
which  the  revolution  declaimed.  .  .  .  What  is  pleasant  in  the  sport 
here  is  Wagram's  familiar  way  with  his  men;  they  are  all  devoted  to 
him. 


78  A  Visit  to  Ferrilres  [1892 

"  i6th  Oct.  (Sunday)  —  An  excursion  to  Ferrieres.  We  drove  over 
all  of  us  in  a  private  omnibus,  changing  horses  on  the  road.  Castle- 
town  and  I  on  the  top,  the  ladies  inside.  I  find  Castletown  a  well- 
informed  man,  more  interesting  that  I  had  at  first  imagined.  He  saw 
a  great  deal  of  the  war  of  1870-71,  being  with  the  Prussians  at  the 
battle  of  Champigny  in  this  neighbourhood,  '  when/  he  says,  '  if  Ducros 
had  only  pushed  on  another  two  hours  he  would  have  broken  the  Prus- 
sian lines  and  effected  his  sortie/  Castletown  was  with  the  Prussian 
headquarters  staff  and  knew  how  anxious  they  were.  He  was  also  with 
Chanzy  in  the  south,  running  great  risks  of  being  shot  as  a  spy.  We 
talked,  too,  of  "Ireland  and  Egypt.  He  is  a  strong  Unionist,  but  a 
fair  one  in  his  reasoning,  and  would  be  a  Nationalist  if  there  was  hope 
of  a  complete  separation. 

"  Ferrieres  (which  is  the  principal  country  seat  of  the  Rothschilds 
in  France)  stands  in  splendid  woods  through  which  we  drove  for  some 
two  miles  before  reaching  the  chateau.  The  house  itself  is  disappoint- 
ing, '  line  commode  renversee  '  as  Bismark  called  it  when  he  slept  there 
during  the  Prussian  occupation.  It  is  surrounded  with  grounds 
a  VAnglaise,  a  fashion  which  I  like  less  than  the  old  French  gardens. 
Inside  it  is  like  a  monstrous  Pall  Mall  Club  decorated  in  the  most  out- 
rageous Louis  Philippe  taste,  a  huge  hall  lit  with  a  skylight  and  horribly 
overdone  in  its  furnishing  and  upholstery.  In  the  midst,  a  pathetic 
little  old  woman  in  black,  Madame  Alphonse  Rothschild,  in  perpetual 
mourning  for  her  departed  beauty.  It  grieved  me  to  remember  her  in 
the  days  of  her  glory;  and  when  she  picked  some  carnations  from  a 
vase  and  gave  us  each  one,  I  asked  for  a  red  one  and  reminded  her 
of  how  I  had  seen  just  such  another  in  her  hair  nearly  thirty  years 
ago  (it  was  in  1863)  when  I  saw  her  for  the  first  time  being  dressed 
in  a  mantilla  for  a  bull-fight  at  Madrid.  A  faint  smile  illumined  her 
gray  face  an  instant  but  evidently  without  recognition  of  me,  and  she 
relapsed  into  her  little  old  woman's  talk  about  her  dogs  and  birds. 
Presently  we  were  joined  by  a  pretty  little  young  woman,  her  daughter, 
Madame  Effrusi,  also  in  black,  a  very  attractive  little  creature  who 
showed  us  round  the  grounds,  with  the  aviaries  and  menageries,  and 
entertained  us  with  pleasant  talk.  This  gave  colour  to  a  rather  colour- 
less afternoon  and  in  spite  of  its  architectural  monstrosities  I  have  car- 
ried away  a  pretty  recollection  of  Ferrieres  and  the  two  little  quite 
diminutive  gentlewomen  living  there. 

"  ijth  Oct. —  To-day  we  made  another  expedition,  there  being  no 
shooting,  to  the  Chateau  of  Vaux  le  Vicomte.  We  drove  to  Brunois, 
thence  by  train  to  Melun,  where  we  lunched  at  the  Grand  Monarque, 
and  on  in  a  fly  to  Vaux.  Vaux  is  without  exception  the  most  splendid 
dwelling-house  it  has  been  my  lot  to  visit.  There  is  nothing  in  Eng- 
land to  compare  with  it,  not  Blenheim,  not  Castle  Howard,  hardly 


1892]  Carolus  Duran  79 

Hampton  Court.  It  is  what  Versailles  ought  to  have  been  and  failed 
to  be,  the  ideal  of  all  that  is  great  and  sumptuous  in  the  French  Renais- 
sance style,  and  at  the  same  time  not  too  vast,  a  house  to  live  in,  not 
merely  a  palace  for  show.  Its  present  proprietor,  one  Sommier,  a 
sugar  merchant,  bought  it  a  few  years  back  for  £100,000,  and  has  spent 
another  £100,000  on  restoring  and  furnishing  it,  all  fortunately  in  the 
perfection  of  good  taste.  His  son,  a  plain  youth  with  yellow  hair, 
rather  ungainly,  but  with  good  voice  and  manner,  received  us  on  the 
perron,  and  showed  us  over  everything  sensibly  and  with  knowledge. 
One  feels  happy,  sugar  or  no  sugar,  that  this  architectural  gem  has 
fallen  into  such  reverent  and  understanding  hands.  It  had  "been 
offered  to  the  Gustave  Rothschilds,  who  fortunately  let  it  go  by.  It 
is  now  being  carefully  put  in  order,  the  square  mile  of  garden  brought 
back  from  the  waste  into  which  it  had  fallen,  statues  and  vases  re- 
placed, and  water  let  in  to  the  ruined  pieces  d'eau ;  this  is  real  restora- 
tion, not  a  stone  has  been  scraped,  not  an  idea  improved  on.  When 
one  looks  at  a  creation  like  this,  dating  from  two  hundred  and  more 
years  ago,  the  talk  of  modern  progress  in  the  nineteenth  century  sounds 
childish.  From  Vaux  to  Ferrieres  is  as  great  a  descent  in  the  intellec- 
tual work  of  man  as  from  Shakespeare  to  Mark  Twain. 

"  Coming  into  the  hall  this  evening  for  dinner,  I  saw  a  grey-headed 
man  entering  at  the  opposite  door,  whom  for  a  moment  I  took  to  be 
Leighton,  but  it  proved  to  be  Carolus  Duran,  and  he  tells  me  he  has 
been  several  times  taken  for  Leighton.  Duran  (or  M.  Carolus,  as  he 
prefers  to  be  called,  Berthe  says,  on  the  pretext  that  he  is  of  Spanish 
origin,  his  real  name  being  Durand,  of  a  cotton-spinning  family  at 
Lille)  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  the  French  artiste  and  homme  d' esprit. 
An  exceedingly  good  talker  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  art,  poetry,  lan- 
guages, music,  and  his  own  heart.  We  drew  him  out  on  every  one, 
and  on  every  one  he  said  things  worth  remembering.  He  talked  of  the 
Chicago  Exhibition  and  the  prospects  of  painting  in  America.  Most 
American  artists,  he  said,  had  been  his  own  or  Meissonier's  pupils. 
Art  was  a  matter  of  education.  The  Americans  would  learn  it  in  time. 
In  poetry  he  declaimed  against  Victor  Hugo,  and  exalted  Musset,  cit- 
ing corresponding  passages  to  Musset's  advantage.  '  All  great  poets,' 
he  said,  '  are  exponents  of  their  own  country's  genius  and  ideas,  not 
of  any  other  country's  (see  Shakespeare,  Moliere,  Dante,  Cervantes), 
this,  although  they  are  also  for  all  mankind.'  He  did  not  think  much 
of  Byron,  but  quoted  Goethe  and  one  or  two  Italians.  He  told  us  he 
was  Spanish,  and  had  learned  Spanish  entirely  by  ear  and  with  a  per- 
fect accent,  but  his  quotations  hardly  bore  that  out.  His  Italian  ac- 
cent was  better.  On  music  he  seemed  to  talk  well,  adoring  Wagner, 
Berlioz,  and  Beethoven,  and  he  sang  snatches  of  Malageiias  in  illus- 
tration of  his  ideas  on  oriental  music.  Lastly  about  his  own  sentiments 


8o  Dufferin  on  Egypt  [1892 

and  feelings  he  was  very  eloquent.  'J'aime  la  mer  comme  on  aime 
tout  etre  capricieux  et  qui  vous  fait  souffrir.'  He  regretted  his  '  vingt- 
cinq  ans,'  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  ascetically  avoiding  pleas- 
ure. At  the  same  time  he  assured  us  that  he  now  made  no  more 
declarations  of  love,  seeing  that  he  was  fifty-four.  '  You  do  this,'  Lady 
Castletown  said,  'out  of  timidity?'  '  Non,'  he  answered,  '  c'est  par 
pudeur.'  That  seemed  to  me  a  pretty  mot.  On  the  whole  an  interest- 
ing man. 

"  igth  Oct. —  To  Paris  and  called  on  Lord  Dufferin  at  the  Embassy, 
who  was  in  the  same  room  that  Lytton  used  to  work  in.  He  was  very 
charming  to  me,  asked  me  to  give  him  a  copy  of  my  new  book  for 
his  '  Helen's  Tower,'  a  library  where  he  has  got  together  400  volumes 
presented  by  authors,  and  which  is  named  after  his  mother.  I  asked 
him  to  help  me  about  Arabi's  release,  and  he  spoke  nicely  of  him, 
and  promised  to  say  a  word  in  his  favour  next  time  he  should  have 
an  opportunity.  On  the  general  question  of  Egypt  he  also  volunteered 
some  remarks.  He  said  that  on  the  whole  policy  of  retaining  or  aban- 
doning a  Mediterranean  influence  no  responsible  person  would  be  will- 
ing to  give  an  opinion  uncalled  for;  but  that,  if  Egypt  was  to  be  evacu- 
ated, there  was  only  one  way,  namely,  to  build  up  some  sort  of  self- 
government.  He  was  especially  opposed  to  Turkish  rule,  and  had 
always  intended,  in  the  settlement  he  made,  that  the  Government  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  native  Egyptians,  not  the  Turks.  He  had  de- 
vised his  '  Constitution '  for  Egypt  with  that  idea.  He  was  not  one 
of  those  who  thought  popular  government  foreign  to  Eastern  ideas. 
On  the  contrary  the  East  has  been  the  home  of  Councils  and  Mejlisses; 
and  he  had  always  been  of  opinion  that,  if  you  could  put  Egypt  to  work 
in  vacua,  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  success.  He  had  been  glad  to 
see  that  Baring  recognized  the  help  rendered  him  by  the  Councils,  and 
he  had  written  to  tell  him  so.  We  then  discussed  how  the  power  of 
the  Councils  might  be  increased,  and  also  the  safeguards  against  inter- 
ference from  Constantinople.  He  talked  with  so  much  interest  that 
his  servant  had  to  come  in  and  remind  him  that  he  had  an  appointment 
to  breakfast  somewhere,  and  so  it  ended.  I  have  written  a  sonnet  for 
his  book,  '  Helen's  Tower.'  Back  to  London  in  the  evening. 

"24th  Oct. —  Lunched  with  Amir  AH  and  his  English  wife.  They 
seem  happy  together,  and  have  two  children.  He  gave  me  much  Indian 
news,  said  that  the  Hindoos,  especially  of  Patna,  were  in  communication 
with  Russia,  and  that  if  Russia  took  possession  of  Persia,  Asia  Minor 
and  Afghanistan,  there  would  certainly  be  a  rising  in  India;  the  Mo- 
hammedans have  separated  themselves  entirely  from  the  Congress  party. 

"  Dined  with  Sheffield  at  the  Travellers'.  Talking  about  old  times, 
when  he  first  went  with  Lyons  as  private  secretary  to  Paris,  the  people 


1892]  Uganda  81 

at  the  Foreign  Office  had  told  him  to  note  carefully  every  word  of 
the  Emperor's,  as  all  he  said  was  of  political  value,  but  after  a  few 
interviews  Lyons  perceived  the  emptiness  of  the  Imperial  reputation. 
Napoleon  Ill's  conversation  was  that  of  '  a  man  threatened  with  soften- 
ing of  the  brain.'  Fleury  came  to  them  and  explained  that  the  Em- 
peror was  often  in  this  state,  having  over  indulged  himself  with  women, 
remaining  helpless  in  bed  for  two  or  three  days  at  a  time,  incapable  of 
attending  to  anything,  and  with  all  the  affairs  of  the  Empire  left  in 
the  hands  of  his  wife.  This  was  in  1867.  Claremont  (the  military 
attache),  Sheffield  says,  sent  report  after  report  to  the  Foreign  Office 
predicting  a  collapse  of  the  French  army  if  there  should  be  war,  but 
nobody  paid  any  attention.  He  told  me  that  he  had  been  invited  by 
Frank  Lawley  to  a  dinner  of  reconciliation  between  Gladstone  and 
Labouchere.  It  ought  to  be  amusing,  but  what  an  absurdity  political 
life  is !  [The  Honourable  Frank  Lawley  had  been  Gladstone's  pri- 
vate secretary  a  good  many  years  before  when  Gladstone  was  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  but  having  been  found  speculating  in  Consols  his 
career  was  put  an  end  to,  and  he  remained  a  broken  man,  not  only 
politically  but  socially.  Public  morality  has  strangely  altered  since.] 

"  26th  Oct. —  Lunched  with  Labouchere,  who  was  as  usual  most 
amusing.  He  told  me  the  whole  story  of  his  correspondence  with  Glad- 
stone about  their  not  asking  him  to  join  the  Cabinet.  '  The  best  of  the 
joke  is,'  he  said,  '  it  was  not  the  Queen  at  all  who  prevented  it.  I  ar- 
ranged with  Gladstone  I  should  lay  it  on  the  Queen,  and  that  he  should 
then  lay  it  on  himself.  It  really  was  Rosebery.  At  the  Cabinet 
Council  about  Uganda  Rosebery  was  in  a  minority  of  one  for  retain- 
ing Uganda,  but  Gladstone  weakly  consented  to  his  putting  in  the  clause 
granting  a  three  months'  respite,  and  Rosebery  at  once  got  up  an 
agitation  in  the  press.  '  He  is  an  ambitious  young  man,'  Labouchere 
said,  '  and  wants  to  be  Prime  Minister,  playing  the  part  Palmerston 
formerly  played  with  the  help  of  the  Tories  against  his  own  party.  We 
shall  have  to  join  against  him,  and  get  up  a  cry  Delendum  est  Rose- 
bery.' [This  is  precisely  what  happened,  and  not  in  Rosebery 's  case 
only,  but  afterwards  in  that  of  his  understudy,  Sir  Edward  Grey.] 

"  yd  Nov. —  Dined  with  Esme  Howard,  and  went  afterwards  to 
hear  a  lecture  by  Captain  Lugard  at  the  Geographical  Society.  Lugard, 
a  little,  thin,  dark-faced  man,  not  unpleasing,  but  his  lecture  terribly 
dull.  The  theatre  crammed,  for  the  agitation  got  up  for  annexing 
Uganda  grows  daily.  Philip  Currie  was  there." 

The  question  of  evacuating  or  retaining  Uganda  was  one  of  critical 
importance  with  the  Liberal  party,  for  it  involved  the  whole  question 
of  extending,  or  limiting  British  Imperial  responsibilities  in  Africa. 
Our  military  party  was  working  its  hardest,  helped  by  the  Tory  opposi- 


82  Morris  on  the  Laureateship  [1892 

tion  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  secretly  by  Rosebery  at  the  Foreign 
Office,  against  Gladstone  and  the  Radicals  for  the  extension,  and 
eventually  succeeded  with  the  results  we  have  seen. 

"  4th  Nov. — '  Esther '  is  out.  I  have  sent  copies  to  Gladstone, 
Morley,  George  Meredith,  William  Watson,  and  Knowles. 

"  To  Sir  William  Harcourt's,  whom  I  went  to  see  in  Downing  Street. 
I  found  him  just  going  to  a  Cabinet  Council,  and  in  high  good  humour. 
'  Well/  he  said,  '  will  you  go  to  Egypt  as  Commissioner  to  effect  the 
evacuation?'  I  said,  'Yes,  if  you  will  recall  Baring.'  He  chuckled, 
'  It  is  not  Egypt  alone  they  want  us  to  swallow,  but  the  whole  of  East 
Africa.  Rhodes  was  with  me  yesterday,  and  showed  me  this  map ' 
(pointing  to  one  on  the  table),  'where  you  will  see  the  territories  he 
has  grabbed.  He  has  put  up  a  telegraph  already  as  far  as  Niassa 
( ?  Nyanza),  and  means  to  carry  it  on  to  Uganda,  and  then  to  Cairo. 
He  has  offered  to  run  Uganda  for  £25,000  a  year,  though  he  admits 
there  is  nothing  to  be  made  of  it  commercially.  You  know  I  am  not 
much  in  favour  of  these  things  myself,  and  am  for  keeping  out  of 
Mediterranean  politics,  but  there  are  others '  (meaning  no  doubt 
Rosebery)  '  who  won't  dance  to  the  music.'  I  said,  '  I  think  you 
ought  to  make  up  your  minds  on  the  general  policy,  and  either  go  in 
for  an  African  Empire,  or  leave  it  alone.  If  you  shilly  shally  first 
one  way  and  then  another  you  will  get  into  just  the  same  mess  that 
you  did  in  1882.'  Then  we  talked  about  Egypt.  '  Baring,'  he  said, 
'  has  sent  in  a  memorandum,  in  which  he  says  that  the  whole  country 
is  becoming  English,  and  so  it  is  to  remain,  the  Khedive  has  lost  his 
popularity  as  he  has  become  too  European.'  I.  '  Yes,  he  has  brought 
back  a  Viennese  woman  with  him  from  Vienna.'  He.  '  What,  only 
one?  Baring  says  everything  is  going  splendidly,  and  he,  Baring 
seems  to  have  his  horses  well  in  hand,  it  would  be  a  pity  perhaps  to 
meddle  with  him.'  /.  '  Yes,  I  have  no  doubt  Baring  has  and  is  driv- 
ing merrily,  but  even  a  timid  passenger  when  he  finds  the  coach  is 
going  to  Brighton  when  it  ought  to  be  going  to  York,  may  be  excused 
for  taking  the  reins.  He  will  drive  you  merrily  on  to  annexation.' 
He.  '  I  would  ask  you  to  luncheon,  but  Waddington  (the  French  Am- 
bassador) is  coming,  and  I  am  afraid  your  views  are  too  well  known. 
Come  on  Tuesday.'  And  so  it  is  arranged. 

"  Later  to  Hammersmith,  where  I  found  Morris  at  his  work,  but 
pleased  to  see  me.  '  It  is  all  a  lie,'  he  said,  '  about  their  having  offered 
to  make  me  Laureate.  Bryce  came  to  see  me  and  talked  of  it,  but  it 
was  only  on  his  own  private  account.  I  was  fool  enough  to  tell  Ellis, 
and  he  told  his  son,  who  must  needs  repeat  it  at  the  National  Liberal 
Club,  and  so  it  got  into  the  papers.  I  fancy  from  what  I  heard  if  they 
don't  offer  it  to  me  they  will  offer  it  to  Swinburne,  but  perhaps  he  won't 
take  it.'  /.  '  It  is  five  to  one  he  will  take  it.'  He.  '  That's  about 


1892]  Harcourt  on  the  Souls  83 

the  betting,  but  Theodore  Watts  declares  he  will  refuse.  That's  per- 
haps all  the  more  reason.' 

"  5^/J  Not1. —  A  note  from  Margot,  '  an  grand  galop,'  asking  me  to 
luncheon  at  her  sister  Charlotte's.  Their  paper  is  to  be  called  '  To- 
morrow, a  Woman's  Journal  for  Men.'  I  was  shown  the  title-page. 
It  is  to  come  out  every  two  months,  and  they  expect  it  to  run  for  a 
year.  They  are  in  straits  for  a  political  leader  writer,  and  I  suggested 
Lady  Gregory. 

"  8th  Nov. —  Lunched  at  n,  Downing  Street,  with  the  Harcourts. 
Great  joking  by  Sir  William  about  the  '  Souls '  journal.  I  suggested 
as  a  motto  for  it,  solus  cum  sola,  with  an  armorial  coat, 
bearing  two  flat  fish  osculant  all  proper.  '  Ah,'  he  said,  '  it  is  their 
bodies  that  I  like,  and  now  they  are  going  to  show  us  their  souls  all 
naked  in  print,  I  shall  not  care  for  them.  Isn't  that  so,  Sophy?'  (to 
his  niece,  Sophy  Sheridan,  who  sat  next  to  him,  pinching  her  arm.) 
He  went  on  to  politics :  '  We  have  drawn  out  a  bill  this  morning,"  he 
said,  '  which  will  destroy  all  temperance  in  England  for  many  years  to 
come.  We  asked  Arch  '  (the  agricultural  labour  member)  '  how  many 
parishes  in  England  would  vote  against  public-houses,  and  he  said  with 
conviction  "  not  a  single  one."  ' 

"  22nd  Nov. —  Crabbet.  Two  young  monks  of  the  Capuchins  at 
Crawley  called  on  me  some  days  ago  —  Father  Cuthbert  and  Father 
Angelo  de  Barry  —  to  interest  me  in  a  project  they  have  of  founding 
a  working  order  of  St.  Francis  instead  of  the  old  begging  one.  Father 
Cuthbert,  who  had  already  spoken  to  me  vaguely  of  his  ideas  of 
Church  reform,  sent  me  to-day  a  note  by  Father  Angelo,  setting  forth 
the  scheme,  and  asking  help  for  them  to  get  to  Rome  and  lay  it  before 
the  Pope.  I  gave  them  the  money  they  wanted,  £50,  with  pleasure, 
for  it  seems  to  me  a  good  and  timely  undertaking  which  may  well  lead 
to  noble  things.  [The  poor  young  men  went  to  Rome,  but,  as  was  to 
be  expected,  came  back  with  a  flea  in  their  ears.  They  were  the  leaders 
of  the  Modernist  Reform  Party  in  their  Order  but  could  not  get  a 
hearing  at  the  Vatican.  They  very  honourably  returned  to  me  the 
journey  money.] 

"  I  am  leaving  England  for  Sheykh  Obeyd.  A  trouble  to  me  is  the 
apparent  failure  of  '  Esther.'  It  is  not  reviewed,  for  which  I  care 
little,  but  even  my  friends  are  silent  about  it,  and  several  of  them  dis- 
approve. Only  from  George  Meredith  has  a  letter  of  high  approval 
come,  and  one  from  York  Powell  at  Oxford." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  VEILED   PROTECTORATE 

Our  winter  in  Egypt  of  that  year,  1892-93,  turned  out  to  be  full 
of  incident.  I  found  on  arriving  there,  that  the  trouble  I  had  foreseen 
between  the  new  Khedive  Abbas  and  Sir  Evelyn  Baring  would  speedily 
come  to  a  head  if  no  attempt  were  made  to  carry  out  Lord  Dufferin's 
promises  to  the  Egyptians  of  restoring  to  them  their  National  Govern- 
ment under  a  constitutional  form,  and  a  definite  policy  adopted  for 
preparing  the  country  for  evacuation.  Owing  to  the  p re-occupation 
of  our  Liberal  party  in  England  with  the  affairs  of  Ireland  and  other 
home  politics,  the  question  of  Egypt  had  been  allowed  to  stand  over 
and  nothing  had  been  done.  Lord  Rosebery  at  the  Foreign  Office 
had  been  left  to  act,  or  not  to  act,  as  he  pleased,  and  he  in  turn  had  left 
the  decision  of  a  policy  to  Baring,  whose  idea  of  Egyptian  Government 
was  to  retain  all  power  in  his  own  hands,  while  acting  in  the  Khedive's 
name. 

It  was  the  famous  policy  of  "  the  Veiled  Protectorate,"  the  success- 
ful carrying  out  of  which  needed  two  essential  conditions,  first,  that 
the  Khedive  should  be  a  consenting  party  to  the  make-believe,  and, 
secondly,  that  its  true  nature  should  be  concealed  from  the  general 
Egyptian  public.  The  Khedive  was  expected  to  name  his  own  ministers, 
but  the  choice  of  them  was  to  be  privately  dictated  to  him  by  the  British 
Agent.  The  Government  officials  were  to  wear  the  Ottoman  Fez,  but 
the  more  important  of  them  were  to  be  Englishmen.  These  were  to 
give  advice,  not  orders,  but  the  advice  was  always  to  be  obeyed.  It 
was  an  ingenius  plan,  adopted  from  the  Government  of  British  India, 
in  its  dealing  with  the  native  states,  while  a  third  condition  was  equally 
indispensable,  that  was  the  presence  behind  the  British  Agent  of  a 
sufficient  armed  force  to  give  emphasis  to  his  advice  and  enforce  his 
will,  the  Army  of  Occupation. 

Although  not  a  year  had  yet  passed  since  Abbas'  succession  to  the 
Khedivial  dignity,  he  had  already  rebelled  against  the  position  of  a 
mere  puppet,  and  had  managed  to  gather  about  him  the  nucleus  of  a 
new  National  party,  which  consisted  of  what  elements  there  were  in 
Egypt  either  of  discontent  or  of  such  patriotism  as  was  to  be  found 
in  the  country,  half  political,  half  religious,  which  resented  the  presence 
of  foreign  and  Christian  rule.  The  Khedive  had  been  greatly  aided 

84 


1892]  The  Veiled  Protectorate  85 

in  this  by  the  publication  of  Sir  Alfred  Milner's  book,  "  England  in 
Egypt,"  which  I  have  described  already.  It  had  appeared  about  the 
time  of  the  change  of  Government  in  England,  and  had  proved  an  entire 
success  there  as  a  support  to  Baring's  views,  but  at  Cairo  it  had  had 
an  exactly  opposite  effect.  It  had  too  candidly  revealed  the  nature  of 
the  Baring  policy,  unveiling  to  nakedness  the  "  Veiled  Protectorate," 
and  as  it  had  been  largely  read  in  an  Arabic  translation  at  Cairo,  it  had 
caused  more  alarm  than  satisfaction  there.  By  the  end  of  the  year 
1892  the  young  Khedive  was  already  popular  with  his  native  subjects, 
while  even  among  Englishmen  resident  at  Cairo  it  was  considered  that 
Baring  had  mismanaged  the  matter,  and  there  was  alarm  at  the  grow- 
ing ill  will  that  was  being  manifested  between  natives  and  foreigners. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  Baring  had  been  at  fault  through  his  lack  of 
personal  courtesy  to  the  young  prince,  who,  having  received  his  educa- 
tion in  Europe,  was  well  aware  of  what  was  due  to  him,  and  had  suf- 
ficient wit  to  know  how  to  assert  himself  on  occasion.  These  things 
are  alluded  to  in  my  diary. 

"  1st  Dec. —  Landed  at  Alexandria  and  lunched  at  the  Consulate, 
where  the  Consular  chaplain,  Davis,  gave  me  some  idea  of  how  things 
were  going  politically.  We  had  some  talk  about  former  Egyptian 
times,  he  having  been  thirty  years  resident  there.  What  he  said  bears 
out  what  my  Egyptian  friends  have  always  affirmed,  namely,  that  Said 
Pasha's  reign  was  the  best  time  the  f  ellahin  ever  had ;  he  is,  however, 
like  all  Englishmen  here,  for  a  perpetual  occupation  in  order,  as  they 
say,  '  to  keep  out  the  French.'  The  ladies  told  stories  of  the  new  Khe- 
dive Abbas  to  his  disadvantage.  He  dislikes  English  soldiers  and  has 
made  them  move  farther  away  from  his  palace,  and  he  insists  upon 
having  his  own  will  in  trifles,  as  on  one  occasion  lately  when  he  made 
the  gate-keepers  of  the  railway  open  for  him,  and  had  forced  the 
Directors  to  apologize  and  dismiss  the  men  because,  not  knowing  who 
he  was,  they  had  cursed  his  father.  This  happened  near  Ramleh. 
We  had  tea  with  Sir  William  and  Lady  Butler,  he  being  in  command 
of  the  English  garrison.  We  went  on  to  Sheykh  Obeyd  next  morning. 

"  26th  Dec. —  To-day,  a  young  fellow,  Abderrahman  Effendi,  was 
here,  a  protege  of  Abdu's.  Talking  of  Abbas,  he  told  me  he  was 
hand  in  glove  with  Riaz  and  Ahmed  Pasha  Shukri,  and  that  they  all 
belonged  to  the  Hesb  el  Horiyeh  (the  Party  of  Liberty).  I  told  him 
that  if  they  really  wanted  Parliamentary  Government  they  must  work 
for  it.  The  Khedive  ought  to  make  known  his  desire  for  it.  He 
should  demand  it  formally  in  writing,  and  I  would  see  that  their  wishes 
were  represented  in  the  proper  quarter.  Writing  to  Loulou  Harcourt 
about  the  same  time,  intending  it  for  his  father,  I  said :  '  I  should  be 
glad  to  know  what  is  intended  at  the  Foreign  Office.  I  consider  that 
there  are  elements  here  of  a  stronger  opposition  to  the  English  regime 


86  The  New  National  Party  [1892-3 

than  was  the  case  under  Tewfik.  For  the  present  the  Khedive  is  young 
and  Cromer  plays  with  him  as  with  a  young  bear,  humouring  him  in 
small  matters  and  excluding  him  from  all  real  power,  and  the  young 
man  amuses  himself  after  the  manner  of  his  age,  but  he  is  certainly 
strongly  anti-English/ 

"  I  understand  that  the  Khedive  is  in  accord  with  the  Constitutional 
party  here.  If  so  there  will  be  less  difficulty  than  last  year  in  carrying 
out  Lord  Dufferin's  programme.  I  really  cannot  understand  how  the 
Liberal  party  in  England  can  with  any  face  refuse  to  do  this.  It  is  the 
only  possible  chance  of  setting  the  Egyptians  on  their  own  legs,. 

"  $ist  Dec. —  I  have  been  taken  up  for  the  last  forty-eight  hours  with 
reading  Milner's  book  about  Egypt  which  is  just  out.  It  is  by  far  the 
ablest  defence  I  have  seen  of  Cromer's  policy,  and  may  be  considered  as 
his  own  apologia,  for  most  of  it  must  have  been  taken  down  from  his 
dictation  or  at  any  rate  in  concert  with  him ;  even  in  form  and  arrange- 
ment of  subjects.  It  is  identical  with  Cromer's  report  of  1891.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  it  and  also  a  great  deal  of  the  suppression  of 
truth. 

"  i6th  Jan.  1893. —  Went  to  Cairo,  the  first  time  this  winter,  on 
business  with  Scott  (then  at  the  Ministry  of  Justice).  I  found  every- 
body there  in  a  great  turmoil,  as  the  Khedive  has  just  dismissed  Mus- 
tapha  Pasha  Fehmi  and  other  Ministers  from  their  posts,  and  has 
appointed  new  ones,  with  Fakhri  Pasha  as  President  of  the  Council, 
without  Baring's  cognizance.  Scott  said  it  was  a  coup  d'etat,  and  so  it 
seems  to  be. 

"  iSth  Jan. —  Baring  has  refused  to  recognize  the  new  Ministry  until 
he  has  communicated  with  the  English  Government.  He  has  given 
the  Khedive  time  to  reflect,  and  the  Khedive,  finding  himself  insuffic- 
iently backed  up  by  the  French,  has  already  given  in  and  a  compromise 
has  been  come  to,  Fakhri  being  replaced  by  Riaz. 

"  2oth  Jan. —  Ismail  Jowdat x  has  been  here  and  has  told  me  the 
whole  story  of  the  intrigue  of  the  last  few  days,  thought  it  dates  in  its 
beginning  from  much  earlier.  It  is  one  of  those  complicated  episodes 
which  make  up  Egyptian  history. 

"  Abbas,  Jowdat  says,  arriving  from  Europe  a  year  ago  with  Euro- 
pean notions,  readily  fell  in  at  first  with  Baring's  plans.  He  took  up 
the  quarrel  with  Constantinople  Baring  led  him  into,  about  his  firman 
of  appointment,  and  for  a  while  was  on  bad  terms  with  the  Sultan. 
Mukhtar  Pasha,  however,  and  de  Reverseaux,  the  French  Consul- 
General,  have  managed  latterly  to  bring  him  round  into  opposition, 
and  he  has  made  up  with  the  Sultan  and  is  strongly  anti-English. 
They  have  managed  this  with  the  help  of  the  young  Sheykh  el  Bekri, 

1  Ismail  Bey  Jowdat,  director  of  the  Cairo  police  under  the  Nationalist  Govern- 
ment in  1882.  See  my  volumes,  "  Secret  History  "  and  "  Gordon  at  Khartoum." 


1893]  Sheykh  el  Bekri  87 

who  was  brought  up  with  Abbas  and  has  great  influence  with  him. 
This  young  man  was  at  first,  like  Abbas,  under  Baring's  influence,  and 
Baring  sent  him  to  England  last  summer  and  introduced  him  to  Glad- 
stone and  others,  boasting  that  the  Egyptians  were  becoming  English 
in  their  sentiments.  The  young  man  is  of  importance  from  his  relig- 
ious position,  which  is  hereditary.  On  his  way  home,  however,  he 
passed  through  Constantinople  and  there  fell  under  the  contrary  influ- 
ence of  the  Sultan,  who  gave  him  high  orders  and  decorations,  and  of 
Prince  Halim  Pasha,  whose  daughter  it  has  been  arranged  he  shall 
marry.  He  returned  to  Egypt  last  autumn  altogether  in  the  Sultan's 
interest,  and  has  since  received  from  Mukhtar  Pasha  a  pension  of  ^300 
a  month  out  of  the  Sultan's  privy  purse.  Abbas,  disapproving  of  his 
visit  to  Constantinople,  refused  to  see  him  on  his  return.  Nevertheless, 
a  reconciliation  was  effected  through  the  mediation  of  the  Khedive's 
mother,  urged  thereto  by  a  certain  religious  Sheykh  of  Alexandria, 
entitled  Sheykh  Tekkiet  Gulshani,  who  desiring  to  have  his  title  con- 
firmed on  his  son,  which  could  only  be  done  through  the  Sheykh  el 
Bekri's  firman,  interceded  on  his  behalf.  The  Khedive's  mother  was 
this  old  Sheykh's  adopted  daughter  (god-daughter)  and  hence  his  in- 
fluence. El  Bekri  then  called  on  the  Khedive  and  was  well  received, 
and  has  since  influenced  him  in  favour  of  the  Sultan's  policy.  Mukhtar 
and  Reverseatix  planned  between  them  with  Riaz  this  sudden  coup 
d'  etat  which  has  just  taken  place,  Bekri  having  got  the  Khedive  to  join 
it.  It  was  Riaz's  suggestion  putting  Fekri  forward,  and  it  has  ended 
as  planned  in  his  own  substitution  as  Minister.  The  following  are  the 
chief  personages  concerned  in  the  plot :  Mukhtar  Pasha,  the  Sultan's 
representative,  with  his  Turkish  secretary  Mohsin  Bey,  Abd  el  Salaam 
Pasha  Moelhi,  Ibrahim  Moelhi  and  his  son  Mohammed,  Prince  Hus- 
sein, the  Sheykh  el  Bekri,  the  Sheykh  Gulshani,  Mohammed  Bey  Zoghi 
and  his  brother,  Rushti  Bey,  Yussuf  Sadyk,  son  of  the  old  Muffettish, 
Ahmed  Bey  el  Kharmili,  and  Ahmed  Bey  Sofani,  of  the  Legislative 
Council,  Mazlum  Pasha,  master  of  ceremonies,  Tigrane  Pasha,  Zekki 
Pasha,  and  others.  They  have  made  up  their  ministry  thus :  Riaz 
Pasha,  Mazlum  Pasha,  Boutros  Pasha  Ghali,  Tigrane,  and  Zekki  Pasha. 
"  Later  in  the  day  Fenwick  Pasha  called  upon  me.  He  regretted 
that  Lord  Cromer  had  not  gained  a  more  certain  victory  in  the  crisis. 
'  Cromer,'  he  said,  '  had  offered  Mustafa  Fehmi  to  back  him  if  he 
would  remain  in  office,  but  Mustafa  declined,  probably  afraid.'  The 
immediate  causes  of  the  coup  d'etat  were  first  the  publication  at  Cairo 
of  Milner's  book,  and  second  the  order  issued  by  Coles  Pashr.  (the 
English  adviser  of  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior)  to  the  Mudirs  in  his 
own  name  instead  of  that  of  the  Egyptian  Minister. 

"  I  have  written  to  Labouchere  and  to  Sir  William  Harcourt." 
This   was  the   Khedive   Abbas'   first   revolt   against   Cromer.     The 


88  Sir  Edgar  Vincent  [1893 

ground  of  the  revolt  was  not  ill-chosen,  as  the  Khedive  was  without 
question  within  his  constitutional  and  legal  right  to  name  his  own  Min- 
isters, and  it  at  once  dissolved  the  illusion  Cromer  had  entertained  that 
his  and  not  the  Khedive's  authority  was  popular  in  Egypt.  It  was 
everywhere  applauded,  and  it  forced  Cromer  to  abandon  his  make 
believe  and  telegraph  to  London  for  English  troops,  a  clear  admission 
of  his  political  impotence.  It  was  a  first  rent  made  in  the  famous 
"  Veiled  Protectorate,"  and  though  Cromer  in  his  book  describes  it 
as  a  victory,  it  was  one  of  physical  force  only,  not  moral  force. 

"  On  the  26th  of  January  Hardinge  of  the  Legation *  was  here. 
He  told  us  that  when  Riaz  was  informed  of  the  arrival  of  reinforce- 
ments from  England  he  smiled  a  blue  smile  and  remarked  that  they 
would  be  welcome,  as  English  regiments  had  always  been  well-behaved 
in  the  country.  '  Riaz,'  said  Hardinge,  '  may  not  love  us,  but  at  least 
he  will  be  an  open  enemy.'  It  appears  that  Cromer  really  threatened 
the  Khedive,  giving  him  twenty-four  hours  to  make  up  his  mind,  and 
that  the  English  regiments  in  garrison  had  ball  cartridges  served  out. 
They  intended  to  surround  the  palace  and  keep  the  Khedive  prisoner  if 
he  refused,  but  what  more  does  not  appear. 

"  $oth  Jan. —  Sir  Edgar  Vincent  and  his  wife,  with  Lady  Alice 
Portal  and  Mr.  Eldon  Gorst,  came  to  tea.  I  was  glad  to  find  that 
Vincent  took  quite  my  view  of  the  situation.  He  said:  'They  can't 
go  on  on  the  old  lines,  and  must  either  declare  a  protectorate  or  evacu- 
ate. The  change,'  he  said,  '  in  public  opinion  since  I  was  at  Cairo  three 
years  ago,  is  astonishing.'  He  has  been  seeing  much  of  Riaz.  As 
to  Turkey  and  the  Sultan  he  confirms  all  that  I  have  heard  of  the 
improvement.  '  The  resuscitation,'  he  said,  '  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  is 
the  most  remarkable  phenomenon  of  our  day.'  And  so  it  is." 

Several  others  have  called,  all  telling  the  same  story,  that  Riaz  has 
the  whole  public  with  him,  and  that  the  Khedive  is  popular  everywhere. 
Only  my  neighbor,  Selim  Faraj,  being  a  timid  man  and  a  Christian,  was 
frightened  when  I  talked  of  evacuation  as  near.  He  thought  it  would 
be  followed  by  a  persecution  of  Christians.  '  It  is  not,'  he  said,  '  as  it 
used  to  be  in  Egypt.  Ever  since  the  affair  of  1882  there  has  been  a 
growing  hatred  between  Mohammedans  and  Christians.'  This  is  true, 
but  whose  fault  is  it? 

"  5th  Feb. —  Parliament  has  met  and  Her  Majesty  has  made  her 
speech,  to  the  effect  that  the  sending  of  troops  to  Egypt  does  not  indi- 
cate a  change  of  policy,  also  that  the  Khedive  has  given  her  assurances 
that  he  will  act  in  co-operation  with  her  representatives. 

"  I4th  Feb. —  Went  in  to  Cairo  to  see  the  Sheykh  el  Bekri.  Moham- 
med Moelhi  met  me  at  the  station  and  we  drove  to  a  Mowlid  [a  relig- 

1  Sir  Arthur  Hardinge,  then  Secretary  of  Legation  at  Cairo,  afterwards  our 
Minister  at  Brussels. 


1893]  Sheykh  el  Bekri  Described  89 

ious  birthday  feast]  in  the  Bab  esh  Shariyeh,  where  we  found  the 
young  Sheykh  in  a  house  decorated  for  the  occasion.  He  arrived  as 
we  arrived,  and  we  went  in  together.  There  was  a  great  crowd  of 
people,  but  the  Selamlik  was  empty,  and  we  sat  down  with  El  Bekri 
and  talked  in  French,  while  religious  Sheykhs  and  others  presently 
came  in  to  pay  their  respects  to  him.  The  Sheykh  el  Bekri  is  a  young 
man  about  twenty-five,  of  no  very  imposing  appearance,  small  and  pale, 
very  plainly  dressed  in  white  turban  gombaz  and  abbo,  you  might  take 
him  for  one  of  the  Azhar  students,  but  he  has  a  certain  quiet  dignity  and 
is  most  intelligent.  He  talks  French  perfectly.  I  discussed  the  situa- 
tion with  him  both  as  to  the  exiles  and  as  to  current  politics.  On  the 
political  situation  he  talked  very  sensibly,  and  urged  me  strongly  to  call 
on  the  Khedive  and  talk  it  over  with  him.  I  said :  '  I  will  call  on  leav- 
ing Egypt  to  ask  him  pardon  for  the  exiles,  and  then  if  he  chooses  to 
speak  to  me  on  other  things  I  will  discuss  them  with  him/  But  I 
explained  that  my  situation  was  rather  a  delicate  one,  as  I  had  formerly 
been  exiled  and  had  been  put  under  an  obligation  not  to  interfere; 
still  I  was  in  communication  with  Sir  William  Harcourt,  and  any  mes- 
sage the  Khedive  might  choose  to  give  me  I  would  deliver.  The 
Sheykh  el  Bekri  told  me  that  when  he  was  in  England  last  summer  he 
had  seen  Gladstone,  and  Gladstone  had  spoken  strongly  to  him  in  the 
sense  of  evacuation  and  against  Lord  Cromer's  policy.  He  could  not 
understand  that  he  should  now  be  supporting  it.  I  explained  the  politi- 
cal intrigues  at  home  and  Rosebery's  position  in  the  Cabinet.  He 
seemed  well  acquainted  with  men  and  things  in  England.  I  gathered 
from  him  that  the  quarrel  between  the  Khedive  and  Lord  Cromer  was 
very  much  a  personal  one.  At  this  point  music  began  outside  and 
chanting,  and  our  sofa  was  turned  round  to  the  window  and  we  con- 
tinued our  talk,  but  with  interruptions.  I  arranged,  however,  with 
him  that  he  should  speak  to  the  Khedive  of  my  readiness  to  be  of 
service  to  him,  and  that  he  was  to  arrange  an  audience  before  I  left 
Egypt.  This  will  oblige  me  to  put  off  my  journey  (the  one  I  had  in- 
tended to  take)  to  the  Fayum.  The  thing  is  interesting,  and  reminds 
me  not  a  little  of  old  days.  I  never  thought  to  become  the  Khedive's 
confidant  after  all  that  has  happened. 

"  15^/1  Feb. —  Sir  George  Bowen  came  and  spent  the  day.  A  man 
of  enlightened  ideas,  and  much  practical  experience  in  English  pro- 
tectorates, the  Ionian  Islands,  Malta,  etc.,  where  he  has  served  officially. 
We  talked  out  the  Egyptian  question  fully,  and  were  pretty  much  agreed 
about  it.  He  says,  the  Liberal  Government  at  home  would  willingly 
evacuate,  but  fears  public  opinion.  He  has  talked  much  since  he  has 
been  in  Egypt  with  Riaz,  and  Nubar,  and  Cromer.  Nubar  regrets 
that  England  did  not  annex  in  1882.  Cromer  admits  that  he  does  not 
know  what  to  do.  There  are  three  possible  courses :  ( I )  To  annex, 


90  Sir  George  Bowen 

which  would  cause  an  European  war.  (2)  To  evacuate,  which  Eng- 
lish opinion  would  not  stand,  and  (3)  To  stay  on  as  we  are.  This 
last  is  what  he  (Cromer)  intends  to  do.  Bowen  confirms  all  I  have 
said  of  the  universality  of  popular  feeling  against  us  here,  the  desire 
that  everyone  has  to  see  us  gone  (not  personal  hatred).  He  finds  the 
Copts  quite  as  much  against  us  as  the  Mohammedans.  He  understands 
the  feeling  as  political,  and  patriotic,  not  fanatical.  He  lays  much  of 
the  blame  on  Cromer,  who  is  not,  he  thinks,  the  sort  of  man  to  acquire 
the  confidence  of  a  young  Oriental  Prince.  .  .  .  He  asked  me  my  solu- 
tion, and  I  told  him  that  I  thought  the  English  garrison  might  be  with- 
drawn to  Suez  as  a  compromise,  that  would  satisfy  the  cry  in  England 
about  the  route  to  India.  He  is  in  communication  with  Lord  Kim- 
berley  and  will  write  to  him,  and  I  trust  may  do  some  good,  though  the 
Liberal  party  seems  to  have  gone  in  for  a  thorough  debauch  of  Jingo- 
ism. 

"  2ist  Feb. —  Again  to  see  the  Sheykh  el  Bekri,  this  time  in  his  own 
palace,  formerly  Abbas  Pasha's,  where  I  had  once  been  in  his  father's 
time  in  1881.  He  is  certainly  a  most  clever  and  charming  young  man, 
knowing  everything  about  the  politics  in  Europe  and  Constantinople 
as  well  as  in  Egypt.  He  sees  Riaz  constantly,  and  vouches  for  Riaz 
as  a  sincere  opponent  of  Cromer,  and  supporter  of  Abbas.  Riaz  holds 
other  language  to  the  English  here.  I  told  Sheykh  el  Bekri  that  I 
thought  it  very  important  the  Khedive  should  state  in  some  official 
document  the  exact  nature  of  the  promise  he  made  to  Cromer  as  to 
his  being  '  willing  to  follow  the  advice  of  Her  Majesty's  Government 
on  all  important  matters,'  whereas  the  Khedive  has  told  deputations 
that  have  waited  on  him  that  all  he  promised  was  '  to  consult  the  Brit-* 
ish  Resident.'  This  he  ought  to  make  clear.  Sheykh  el  Bekri  assured 
me  that  under  present  circumstances  Abbas  could  count  on  the  Sultan's 
support.  He  is  advising  the  Khedive  to  act  in  everything  through  and 
with  the  support  and  countenance  of  the  Legislative  Council.  This  is 
the  right  road. 

"  2yd  Feb. —  To  Cairo  to  order  a  black  coat,  the  Khedive  being 
punctilious  on  the  score  of  clothes.  Fortunately  I  found  one  at  the 
English  tailor's  ready  made.  [It  had  been  ordered  for  Oliver  Montagu 
who  had  just  died  at  Cairo,  and  had  never  worn  it.]  Had  a  long  talk 
with  Sackville  l  who  thinks  things  very  unsatisfactory,  the  European 
Powers  would  not  allow  our  annexation,  the  Turks  would  come  from 
Constantinople  if  we  went. 

"  24th  Feb. —  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu  came  for  lunch  and  stayed 
the  afternoon.  I  had  not  seen  him  since  the  coup  d'etat,  and  was  anx- 
ious for  his  opinion.  He  is  strongly  in  favour  of  Riaz  who,  he  says, 

1  Lionel  Lord  Sackville,  formerly  of  the  Diplomatic  Service,  and  Her  Majesty's 
Minister  at  Washington. 


1893]  Abdu  on  the  Occupation  91 

may  be  depended  on,  not  so  Tigrane  or  Boutros.  Tigrane,  Artin,  and 
the  Christians  generally  do  all  they  can  to  destroy  Moslem  education. 
Riaz  is  a  tyrant,  but  he  is  honest.  He  gave  me  his  opinions  of  the 
various  Englishmen  employed  in  the  country ;  '  the  only  good  ones,'  he 
said,  '  are  Scott,  Garstein,  and  Corbett.  It  has  been  the  introduction 
of  so  many  inferior  Englishmen  in  the  last  three  years  that  has  ruined 
English  influence.'  He  laughed  much  at  Wallace  and  his  school  of 
agriculture,  and  at  Willcox  with  his  reforms  of  the  Arabic  language. 
He  is  very  glad  I  am  to  see  the  Khedive,  and  wants  me  to  impress  on 
him  the  necessity  of  keeping  well  with  Riaz,  and  of  taking  up  young 
Mohammedans  rather  than  Armenians  and  Syrians.  He  would  also 
work  in  a  Constitutional  sense.  '  We  do  not  mind,'  he  said,  '  the 
English  being  here  for  a  year,  or  two  years,  or  five  years,  so  long  as 
they  do  not  stay  altogether.  It  would  be  better  for  the  country  as  giv- 
ing time  for  the  growth  of  the  Fellah  party,  but  if  there  is  danger  of 
annexation  we  are  quite  ready  to  run  the  risk  of  a  little  tyranny  from 
the  Turks,  rather  than  the  other  greater  risk ;  if  you  will  evacuate  to- 
morrow we  shall  all  rejoice.'  Now  Abdu  is  probably  the  most  philo- 
English  of  the  Egyptians. 

"  On  the  25th  February  an  interview  with  me,  which  had  been  pub- 
lished in  the  '  Pall  Mall  Gazette,'  having  been  reprinted  in  the  '  Bos- 
phore  Egyptien,'  I  wrote  to  Lord  Cromer  to  explain  that  I  was  not 
responsible  for  this,  or  for  joining  in  any  of  the  attacks  made  on  him 
in  the  Egyptian  newspapers.  '  In  England,'  I  said,  '  it  is  different. 
There  as  long  as  we  occupy  Egypt  without  annexing  it,  the  Egyptian 
question  must  remain  a  subject  of  public  discussion,  and  I  am  sure  you 
will  not  think  that  with  the  strong  views  I  hold  on  the  injustice  of 
destroying  Egyptian  Nationality,  my  expressing  myself  on  the  subject 
was  unfair  or  uncalled  for.'  In  answer  he  said,  while  thanking  me  for 
my  letter,  '  I  cannot,  of  course,  take  the  smallest  exception  to  your 
expressing  your  views  on  Egyptian  questions  in  any  form  you  may 
think  fit,  neither  did  I  for  a  moment  imagine  that  you  wished  to  make 
a  personal  attack  on  myself.'  I  quote  this  as  showing  what  my  rela- 
tions with  Cromer  were  at  this  and  in  subsequent  times  when  we  quar- 
relled politically. 

"  28th  Feb. —  Went  this  morning  by  appointment  to  see  the  Khedive 
at  Abdin  Palace.  I  found  him  in  the  same  room  as  a  year  ago,  and  he 
came  to  meet  me  at  the  door.  He  received  me  very  cordially,  and 
talked  throughout  with  a  great  show  of  frankness  and  confidence. 
His  manner  is  certainly  excellent,  and  he  has  a  wonderful  command  of 
words  for  so  young  a  man,  with  a  very  frank,  agreeable  smile.  He 
began  about  his  farm  at  Koubbah,  which  he  said  interested  him  far 
more  than  anything  at  Abdin,  and  \vc  discussed  the  subject  of  horse- 
breeding  and  the  growth  of  bcrsini  hcjazi.  Then  he  went  on  to  politics. 


92  The  Khedive  Abbas  Talks  [1893 

He  thanked  me  for  having  spoken  in  his  favour  in  the  P.M.G.  inter- 
view. '  The  whole  English  Press/  he  said,  '  is  against  me.'  I  asked 
him  for  a  history  of  what  had  happened.  He  said :  '  As  long  ago  as 
the  end  of  last  summer,  when  Mustafa  Pasha  (Fehmy)  returned  from 
Europe,  Palmer  (the  Financial  Adviser)  came  to  me  and  complained 
of  my  having  spoken  against  him.  I  asked  him  how  he  knew  I  had 
done  so.  He  said  the  people  of  the  Palace  were  talking.  Then  Hard- 
inge  came  with  the  same  complaint,  but  could  not  tell  me  who  it  was 
that  had  spoken.  When  Lord  Cromer  arrived  he  came  to  me  and  told 
me  that  I  was  becoming  very  unpopular  (laughter)  in  the  country  be- 
cause I  was  not  cordial  with  Mustafa  Pasha.  The  fact  is  Mustafa 
is  an  invalid,  and  has  to  go  in  the  summer  to  Europe.  He  is  not  fit 
to  be  Prime  Minister.  When  he  fell  ill,  Lord  Cromer  objected  to  my 
taking  Tigrane,  and  offered  me  a  choice  of  several  quite  incapable  per- 
sons —  Balig  Pasha,  who  is  a  Cypriote,  Affet  Pasha,  who  is  one  of  the 
worst  of  men,  and  Ahmed  Shukri,  who  is  quite  incapable.' 

He  then  gave  me  an  account  of  what  had  happened  between  him 
and  Cromer  as  to  the  promise  of  following  English  advice.  I  asked 
him  to  tell  me  the  exact  words,  and  he  said :  '  We  were  speaking  in 
French '  (to  me  he  was  speaking  in  very  good  English,  and  I  fancy 
he  keeps  his  French  for  his  English  advisers),  'and  what  I  said  was, 
"  Que  j'avais  tout  desir  d'agir  de  concert  avec  le  Gouvernement  Anglais 
et  que  je  ne  manquerais  pas  de  le  consulter  sur  toute  chose  de  grande 
importance.'  "  He  denied,  however,  categorically  that  he  gave  any 
promise  of  '  following  English  advice.'  I  showed  him  Cromer's  des- 
patch published  in  the  Blue  Book,  which  I  had  in  my  pocket  with  the 
Queen's  Speech,  and  he  said  the  latter  was  correct  enough,  not  the 
other.  I  then  told  him  that  I  considered  it  very  important  since  that 
was  so,  that  he  should  at  once  contradict  it  officially,  as  afterwards  it 
would  be  quoted  against  him,  and  he  promised  to  make  Tigrane  write 
an  official  despatch  in  that  sense.  I  then  asked  him  whether  he  could 
rely  absolutely  on  Riaz  as  against  Cromer,  and  he  said  '  absolutely.' 
'  If  that  is  so,'  I  said,  '  and  you  have  the  Sultan  with  you,  you  have 
nothing  whatsoever  to  fear.'  He  said,  '  Indeed  I  am  not  in  the  smallest 
degree  afraid  of  any  one.  I  consider  that  I  have  a  great  responsibility 
here  as  ruler  of  the  country  and  a  great  duty,  and  I  mean  to  do  it.  I 
do  not  care  what  happens.'  I  noticed  that  he  was  reticent  about  the 
Sultan,  but  I  did  not  press  that  matter.  About  Tigrane  he  said,  '  I 
know  that  I  can  depend  better  on  Riaz  than  on  Tigrane.  Tigrane, 
being  a  Christian,  has  no  influence  in  the  country,  but  Riaz  has.  We 
must  make  use  of  Christian  ministers  as  administrators,  not  as  heads 
of  the  Government.'  I  then  asked  him  about  the  amnesty  for  Arabi 
and  the  other  exiles.  I  told  him  I  had  had  letters  from  Arabi  full  of 


1893]  My  Advice  to  Abbas  93 

loyal  expressions  towards  him,  and  that  I  was  sure  he  could  count  on 
him  to  be  faithful  to  them,  that  Mahmud  Sami  might  be  very  useful 
to  him,  and  that  I  hoped  he  would  allow  them  to  return  to  Egypt.  He 
received  this  very  favourably,  and  I  went  on  to  say  that  I  had  always 
regretted  that  his  father,  Tewfik,  had  quarrelled  with  Arabi,  and  so 
brought  the  English  into  the  country  —  he  did  not  dissent  from  this  — 
that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Arabi's  policy  was  precisely  the  same  as  his, 
Abbas'  own,  namely,  to  get  rid  of  foreign  rule.  He  said  he  could  not 
give  me  a  precise  answer  about  the  exiles  until  he  had  consulted  others, 
but  that  he  would  take  their  case  into  favourable  consideration,  and 
when  a  proper  opportunity  occurred  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  accede  to 
my  request.  I  said  I  would  not  press  it  on  him  at  the  present  moment 
of  his  strained  relations  with  Cromer.  I  then  advised  him  strongly  to 
take  his  Legislative  Council  into  his  counsels,  and  act  through  it  and 
through  the  General  Assembly,  and  I  told  him  of  Labouchere's  view. 
In  all  this  he  cordially  agreed.  A  deputation  then  appeared  in  the 
outer  room,  and  I  saw  that  it  was  time  to  go.  I  took  my  leave,  prom- 
ising him  to  state  his  case  in  any  quarters  where  I  might  have  influence, 
and  that  he  could  always  count  on  me  for  the  best  of  my  advice.  He 
walked  to  the  door  with  me,  making  me  promise  to  come  and  see  him, 
and  his  horses  at  Koubbah.  As  I  was  leaving  him  I  said,  '  One  word 
more.  If  Lord  Cromer  should  leave  Egypt,  and  there  is  any  question 
of  appointing  an  Indian  officer  in  succession  to  him,  I  advise  Your 
Highness  strongly  to  object.'  He  said,  '  Oh,  certainly.  I  know  them.' 
And  so  with  great  cordiality  we  parted. 

"  I  am  delighted  with  the  young  man.  He  is  able,  courageous,  and 
self-possessed.  He  reminds  me  of  his  grandfather,  Ismail,  as  to  wit, 
tnais  en  mieux.  He  ought  to  win  his  game  against  Cromer. 

"  Mohammed  Moelhi  came  in  the  afternoon.  I  told  him  all  that  has 
passed  at  the  palace  and  he  said :  '  Now  you  must  go  to  Constantinople, 
the  Sultan  will  wish  to  see  you.'  So  I  shall  do  if  all  goes  well. 

"  ist  March. —  I  received  a  curious  visit  from  one  Abdullah  El 
Moughera,  an  Arab  of  the  Moughera  tribe  of  Aflaj,  but  born  at  Shagra, 
in  Nejd.  He  told  me  he  had  left  Nejd  as  servant  to  Abdullah  Ibn 
Thenneyan  Ibn  Saoud,  who  went  to  Constantinople  twelve  years  ago, 
wanting  to  be  established  in  Nejd  by  the  Turkish  Government.  He  had 
been  employed  by  the  Sultan  to  try  and  raise  troops  among  the  Anazeh 
and  other  tribes  and  had  succeeded  in  getting  Sotamm  Ibn  Shaalan  and 
other  chiefs  to  go  to  Constantinople.  But  Sheykhs  Ahmed  Essaad  and 
Abul  Hilda  had  been  jealous  of  him  and  he  had  left  the  Sultan's  service 
and  had  gone  back  to  Syria.  At  Jerusalem  he  had  offered  his  services 
to  the  British  Consul  to  raise  an  insurrection  in  Syria,  and  the  Consul 
had  sent  him  on  to  Lord  Cromer.  He  had  seen  Cromer  and  Boyle, 


94  A  Visit  to  Riaz  Pasha  [1893 

but  says  he  could  not  make  them  understand  him,  as  Boyle  and  he 
talked  Turkish,  but  most  probably  they  would  not  have  anything  to  do 
with  him,  so  he  came  on  to  me. 

"  He  came  again  4th  March,  and  I  gave  him  £10  and  advised  him  to 
go  back  to  Syria. 

"  6th  March. —  Abderrahman  Ismail  came  and  reminded  me  of  what 
I  had  advised  about  the  Khedive  declaring  himself  before  Parliament 
met.  '  You  see/  he  said,  '  we  have  taken  your  advice.'  So  it  is  just 
possible  that  my  words  may  have  had  some  influence  in  bringing  the 
crisis  on,  only  I  wish  they  had  consulted  me  as  to  the  way  of  doing  so. 
I  should  not  have  advised  this  sudden  change  of  Ministers.  But  per- 
haps it  is  best  as  it  is.  It  was  not  Ahmed  Shukri,  but  Mohammed 
Shukri,  who,  he  told  me,  was  working  with  Riaz.  He  talked  now  in 
the  highest  spirits  of  all  that  was  happening.  I  told  him  I  thought  it 
possible  negotiations  for  evacuation  might  be  begun  before  the  end  of 
the  year. 

"  ^th  March. —  To-day  I  went  to  see  Riaz  Pasha.  To  my  astonish- 
ment he  had  written  me  a  most  amiable  note,  asking  to  see  me  and 
signing  himself  Votre  bien  devoue.  So  I  called  at  three  at  his  private 
house  in  the  Helmiyeh  quarter,  near  the  citadel,  I  suppose  the  quarter 
where  his  old  Jew  father  lived.  He  received  me  with  the  greatest 
cordiality,  a  little,  wizened,  gray  old  man,  with  a  nervous,  twitching 
face  (once  Abbas  I's  dancing  boy!)  and  poured  me  out  his  griefs.  He 
began  with  a  long  apology  for  his  conduct  in  past  times  and  of  how  he 
would  have  saved  the  country  if  it  had  not  been  for  Arabi's  pushing 
on  too  quickly.  I  did  not  care  to  argue  that  point,  as  I  knew  it  would 
take  time,  and  he  is  sorry  enough  now  for  having  got  the  English  into 
the  country.  He  is  very  angry  with  Cromer  for  having  humbugged 
him  when  he  was  last  in  office  about  evacuation,  and  on  my  showing 
him  what  Labouchere  had  written  me  about  Rosebery's  intention  never 
to  evacuate,  he  threw  up  his  hands  in  real  passion. 

"  We  discussed  the  necessity  of  action  through  the  General  Assembly, 
and  he  quite  agreed.  But  he  strikes  me  as  being  rather  old  and  infirm, 
and  I  doubt  if  he  will  hurry  on  fast  enough.  Unless  they  act  here, 
while  our  Parliament  is  sitting,  they  will  lose  their  pains.  I  talked  to 
him  also  about  getting  the  Sultan  to  agree  to  the  neutralization  of 
Egypt  in  connection  with  our  withdrawal,  and  he  thought  it  could  be 
managed  if  the  word  neutralization  was  not  used  to  the  Sultan.  He 
thought  also  they  might  come  to  an  agreement  to  make  over  the  town 
of  Suez  permanently  to  England,  but  he  begged  me  not  to  quote  him, 
also  he  promised  to  draw  up  a  programme  of  reforms.  About  the 
Khedive's  denial  that  he  had  promised  to  follow  English  advice  he  did 
not  feel  sure,  but  said  that  something  he  thought  had  already  been 
written  about  it.  He  is  very  Oriental  and  very  vague,  but  there  is 


1893]  The  Sultan  of  Johore  95 

something  in  him  that  inspires  confidence.  When  I  said,  '  You  must 
not  repeat  all  I  have  told  you  to  Lord  Cromer,'  he  exclaimed,  '  Ah, 
could  you  think  it  ? '  Lastly  I  talked  to  him  about  Arabi's  return,  and 
he  spoke  much  as  the  Khedive  had  spoken,  of  there  being  no  unwilling- 
ness on  their  part  only  that  the  time  was  inopportune.  He  compli- 
mented me  on  my  constancy  to  my  friend,  and  we  parted  on  the  best 
possible  terms.  Coming  with  me  to  the  head  of  the  stairs  he  kept 
repeating:  'Ah,  que  je  suis  content  de  vous  avoir  vu,  que  je  suis 
content,  que  je  suis  content.' 

"nth  March. —  I  have  written  my  article,  'Lord  Cromer  and  the 
Khedive,'  for  the  '  Nineteenth  Century,'  also  letters  to  Churchill, 
Labouchere,  and  Loulou  Harcourt,  founded  on  my  talk  with  the  Khe- 
dive ;  also  I2th  March  to  Mr.  Gladstone. 

"  22nd  March. —  Mohammed  Moelhi  tells  me  of  a  new  trouble.  A 
certain  Ali  Bey,  Colonel  of  a  regiment  quartered  at  Koubbah,  had  made 
himself  conspicuous  by  his  visits  to  the  Khedive,  and  his  congratula- 
tions on  the  issue  of  the  coup  d'etat.  This  has  given  offence  to  Kitch- 
ener, the  new  Sirdar,  and  they  have  ordered  the  regiment  back  tc 
Suakim,  whence  it  only  came  six  months  ago.  The  Minister  of  War, 
Yussuf  Shudi,  one  of  the  old  gang,  lets  Kitchener  do  what  he  likes. 
[This  entry  is  of  more  importance  than  it  seems,  for  this  Ali  Bey  was 
Ali  Bey  Kamel,  brother  to  Mustafa  Kamel,  afterwards  leader  of  the 
National  Party,  who  began  his  political  career  by  taking  up  this  quarrel 
of  his  brother  with  Kitchener.] 

"  31  st  March. —  Everard  Fielding  (he  had  been  staying  with  us  at 
Sheykh  Obeyd)  brought  the  Sultan  of  Johore  to  see  us,  a  good  old 
Indian  gentleman  of  very  simple  manners  and  much  bonhomie.  He 
lunched  with  us,  notwithstanding  Ramadan,  talking  pleasantly  in  pidgin 
English,  which  did  not  altogether  mar  his  dignity.  With  him  a  young 
Malay,  the  general  of  his  army,  and  his  English  secretary,  Captain 
Creighton.  He  complained  that  though  he  had  been  a  fortnight  at 
Cairo,  he  had  as  yet  seen  none  but  English  officials,  and  that  Lord 
Cromer  had  not  encouraged  him  in  his  desire  to  go  into  Egyptian 
society.  I  offered  to  put  him  in  the  way  of  this,  which  much  delighted 
him,  and  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  Mohammed  Moelhi  called,  while 
we  were  sitting  on  the  roof,  and  I  introduced  him  and  sent  Mohammed 
back  with  him  to  Cairo,  to  take  him,  to-day  being  Friday,  to  the 
Mohammed  Ali  Mosque  for  prayers,  and  I  am  to  take  him  on  Sunday 
to  the  Sheykh  el  Bekri  and  get  Mohammed  Abdu  and  other  Sheykhs  to 
call  on  him,  and  we  will  put  him  in  the  right  way  to  an  introduction  to 
Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  when  he  goes  on  to  Constantinople. 

"  2nd  April. —  To  Cairo,  where  I  took  the  Sultan  of  Johore  to 
Sheykh  el  Bekri,  acting  for  him  as  interpreter.  This  was  a  difficult 
matter,  as  the  poor  old  Sultan's  English  is  hardly  intelligible,  and  his 


96  Johore  at  Cross  Purposes  [1893 

ideas  are  most  embroiled,  and  his  manner,  too,  for  an  Oriental,  is 
strangely  bad,  and  I  fear  he  shocked  el  Bekri  by  a  certain  sans-fagon 
in  speaking  of  holy  things,  though  I  was  able  to  smooth  down  his  more 
unfortunate  remarks,  as  interpreters  do.  The  truth  is  they  were  at 
cross  purposes.  What  el  Bekri  wanted  to  find  out  was  whether  the 
Sultan  had  any  panislamic  ideas,  whether  he  wanted  to  see  Abdul 
Hamid  at  Constantinople  for  a  political  purpose,  and  whether  he  would 
encourage  panislamic  missionaries  at  Johore.  The  old  man,  on  the 
other  hand,  only  wanted  a  little  personal  sympathy  as  a  Mohammedan 
from  Mohammedans.  He  was  too  humble-minded  to  expect  much  no- 
tice from  Abdul  Hamid,  and  had  nothing  of  any  importance  to  say  to 
him.  Thus  each  misunderstood  the  other.  '  Do  the  Mohammedan 
Princes  in  India,'  the  Sheykh  asked,  '  communicate  with  each  other  as 
such,  and  do  they  communicate  with  the  Sultan  at  Constantinople  ? ' 
To  which  the  other  replied  that  the  Malay  princes  knew  each  other,  but 
not  the  others.  They  had  never  had  the  smallest  communication  with 
Constantinople,  and  the  Ottomans  looked  on  them  as  Kaffirs.  A  Turk- 
ish man-of-war  had  once  come  and  stayed  some  time  at  Singapore  on 
her  way  to  Japan,  and  it  was  not  till  just  before  she  sailed  that  they 
discovered  that  Johore  was  Mohammedan.  Then  everybody  had  been 
delighted.  That  was  the  only  communication  that  had  ever  taken 
place  with  the  Turks.  They  saw  many  Arabs  of  the  Hedjaz  at  Singa- 
pore who  came  to  trade,  but  they  were  ignorant  men,  though  some  were 
rich.  He  would  like  to  go  to  Constantinople,  but  he  would  not  put  the 
Sultan  to  the  trouble  of  receiving  him.  He  was  only  a  small  sovereign, 
and  had  nothing  of  importance  to  say.  As  to  missionaries,  he  would 
be  delighted  if  the  Sheykh  would  send  them  a  professor  to  teach  them 
their  religion.  They  were  all  Shafais  at  Johore.  They  said  their 
prayers  in  Arabic,  but  did  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  words;  the 
Koran  was  not  translated  into  Malay  except  some  parts  of  it.  He  was 
having  a  translation  made,  they  were  all  very  ignorant.  The  young 
Sheykh  el  Bekri  hardly  knew,  I  think,  what  to  make  of  it  all.  The 
good  Sultan  of  Johore  was  more  successful  with  other  Egyptians  whom 
I  took  him  to.  At  Abdul  Salaam's  the  Pasha  was  on  all  fours  to  His 
Highness,  and  me  for  bringing  him.  He  described  to  them  his  patri- 
archal way  of  governing  his  country  with  a  walking  stick  — '  like  the 
first  Caliphs '  Abdul  Salaam  remarked  —  and  how  he  liked,  when  he 
was  at  home  with  his  wife  and  his  mother,  to  sit  on  the  floor  and  eat 
with  his  fingers.  He  wanted  to  find  somebody  doing  that,  but  at  Cairo 
there  were  European  chairs  and  sofas  everywhere.  We  have  promised 
to  show  him  that,  too,  and  he  is  to  go  on  to  Mohammed  Abdu. 

"  Later  I  went  alone  with  Mohammed  to  call  on  Mukhtar  Pasha,  and 
had  a  long  talk  with  him  on  the  political  situation,  the  upshot  of  which 
was  that  he  promised  no  time  should  be  lost  in  pushing  things  on.  He 


1893]  Mukhtar  Pasha  Ghezi  97 

would  write  at  once  to  the  Sultan,  suggesting  that  he  should  take  action 
in  the  direction  of  neutralizing  Egypt,  and  he  would  urge  Riaz  to  con- 
voke the  General  Assembly  here  after  Ramadan.  It  shows  how  little 
these  people  know  of  their  own  affairs,  and  how  entirely  Dufferin's 
Charter  has  remained  a  dead  letter,  that  when  I  spoke  to  Mukhtar  of 
the  Assembly,  he  stoutly  denied  that  there  existed  such  an  institution. 
'  It  would  be,'  he  said,  '  a  most  precious  instrument  in  our  hands,  but  I 
have  never  heard  of  it.'  I  exhorted  him  to  consult  his  papers.  He  also 
assured  me  that  as  long  as  the  Khedive  was  dans  la  bonne  voie,  he 
could  count  on  the  Sultan's  support.  Also  about  Riaz  that  he  was  sure 
he  would  work  straight  now  with  the  Khedive.  Riaz  was  much 
changed  in  the  last  two  years.  He  would  jog  him  on  if  he  was  slow, 
as  he  quite  saw  the  necessity  for  action.  Every  year  the  Occupation 
lasted  rooted  it  more  firmly.  Lastly,  he  promised  to  see  the  Sultan  of 
Johore,  who  I  hope  will  not  commit  any  inconvenance  when  they  meet. 
It  is  announced  in  the  papers  that  Cromer's  new  yearly  Report  is  pub- 
lished, and  that  the  '  Daily  News '  in  London  supports  it,  and  declares 
it  must  be  several  years  before  Egypt  can  be  left  to  manage  its  own 
Government. 

"  ^th  April. —  Randolph  writes  me  an  interesting  letter  about  Egypt. 
He  says  that  he  is  still  in  favour  of  evacuation,  but  at  the  present  time 
cannot  express  his  opinion  publicly  with  advantage.  He  wishes,  me, 
however,  to  tell  the  Khedive  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  Cromer  as  his 
best  chance. 

"  I2th  April. —  Lunched  with  Tigrane  (the  Armenian  Under  Sec- 
retary for  Foreign  Affairs).  He  is,  I  think,  sound  in  his  Nationalism, 
though  an  Armenian.  We  talked  about  my  article  in  the  '  Nineteenth 
Century,'  with  nearly  all  of  which  he  agreed,  objecting  only  that  it 
might  do  harm  to  the  Khedive  that  I  should  have  stated  him  to  have 
denied  the  promise  to  follow  English  advice.  He  said  he  had  been 
himself  the  intermediary  in  arranging  the  affair  between  the  Khedive 
and  Lord  Cromer,  that  he  had  drawn  up  in  writing  with  Lord  Cromer 
the  form  of  words  the  Khedive  was  to  use,  namely,  '  Je  suiverai  volon- 
tiers  les  conscils,'  etc. ;  that  the  Khedive  had  read  the  Memorandum 
and  had  learnt  it  by  heart,  and  had  promised  to  use  the  exact  words. 
He  therefore  presumed  that  the  Khedive  had  done  so,  and  that  the 
promise  was  in  fact  made.  I  said  there  could  be  no  mistake  that  the 
Khedive  now  denied  it,  and  we  both  agreed  that  it  was  a  point  of  the 
utmost  importance.  He  said  that  the  Legislative  Council  would  be 
convened  soon  after  Bairam,  when  they  would  introduce  a  programme 
of  educational  and  other  reforms.  He  would  see  Mohammed  Abdu 
as  to  a  reform  of  the  Azhar  if  I  would  send  him  to  him.  As  to  the 
General  Assembly  the  country  was  not  yet  ready  for  it.  It  would  have 
to  be  written  about  first  in  the  press.  He  had  himself  always  been  in 


98  By  Athens  to  Constantinople 

that  without  constant  action  there  was  no  chance  of  success.  '  Yes,'  he 
said,  '  we  drift  down  the  stream  like  a  log  to  the  sea.'  On  the  whole 
I  am  pleased  with  Tigrane. 

"  i$th  April. —  Lady  H.  writes  that  she  has  seen  Gorst  who  seemed 
immensely  struck  with  my  article,  '  Lord  Cromer  and  the  Khedive,' 
never  apparently  before  having  realized  what  a  good  case  can  be  made 
out  for  the  other  side. 

"  i$th  April. —  Called  again  on  Mukhtar  Pasha,  who  talked  with 
considerable  unreserve.  Speaking  of  the  necessity  there  would  be  of 
England's  holding  Egypt  in  force,  if  she  were  at  war  with  any  Great 
Power,  I  had  remarked  we  should  require  20,000  men  — '  50,000,'  he 
exclaimed,  '  only  to  deal  with  the  internal  disturbance,  and  when  I  come 
with  an  army  from  out  there  from  Damascus  you  will  see  how  many 
more  you  will  want.'  " 

This  is  the  account  given  by  my  diary  of  Abbas'  first  pitched  battle 
with  Cromer,  which  the  latter  always  claimed  as  a  notable  victory, 
though  in  reality  it  was  hardly  that  in  any  moral  sense,  Cromer  having 
got  his  way  only  by  the  violent  physical  measure  of  calling  for  British 
reinforcements  and  by  the  unreadiness  of  the  French  Government  to 
make  it  a  castis  belli.  Relying  on  this  he  succeeded  in  intimidating  the 
young  Khedive  to  the  extent  of  obtaining  from  him  a  compromise  in 
regard  to  his  right  of  appointing  Ministers  which  he  was  able  to  repre- 
sent in  his  reports  as  dictated  by  himself,  but  it  left  him  with  the 
Khedive  for  a  persistent  enemy,  who  though  many  times  forced  to 
submit  was  never  reconciled,  and  who  in  the  end  defeated  his  old 
enemy,  and  drove  him  out  of  Egypt.  I  have  recorded  it  here  at  some 
length,  for  it  marks  the  beginning  of  an  obstinate  determination  on  the 
part  of  our  Foreign  Office  under  the  Liberal,  no  less  than  under  the 
Conservative  administrations  in  Downing  Street,  to  cling  to  Egypt  right 
or  wrong,  wisely  or  foolishly,  to  its  own  hurt  twenty  years  later. 

On  the  i8th  April  we  left  Sheykh  Obeyd  for  Athens  and  Constan- 
tinople. At  Athens  I  found  my  friend  Egerton  newly  appointed  Min- 
ister, and  we  lunched  at  the  Legation  with  him  and  Arthur  Ellis,  who 
was  there  in  attendance  on  the  Princess  of  Wales  on  a  yachting  cruise, 
and  they  both  talked  with  a  certain  sympathy  of  my  Egyptian  views, 
Egerton  being  still  for  evacuation  as  when  we  had  talked  of  it  to- 
gether in  Paris ;  but  we  made  no  stay  at  Athens  more  than  the  few 
hours  allowed  by  our  steamer,  and  on  23rd  April  we  landed  at  Galata, 
and  took  up  our  quarters  at  Myssiris  Hotel,  where  all  is  unchanged 
since  I  was  first  there  thirty-three  years  before,  and  where  we  stayed 
for  a  fortnight,  an  interesting  visit,  though  I  failed  after  all  in  the 
chief  object  of  it,  that  of  getting  speech  of  the  Sultan. 

Our  first  visitor  on  arrival  was  my  old  ally  Ibrahim  Moelhi,  Moham- 


1893]  Sir  Clare  Ford  Ambassador  99 

med's  father,  now  a  Pasha  by  favour  of  the  Sultan,  and  in  high  favour 
at  the  Imperial  court,  who  put  me  in  the  way  of  seeing  various  digni- 
taries, including  Munir  Pasha,  the  Sultan's  chief  intermediary  between 
Yildiz  Palace  and  strangers  of  distinction,  who  promised  me  an  early 
audience  of  His  Majesty,  but  I  soon  found  there  were  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  an  actual  private  audience  of  the  kind  usual  at  that  time  among 
the  Court  officials.  Mukhtar  Pasha,  from  whom  I  had  brought  a  letter 
of  introduction  to  Munir,  had  described  me  in  it  as  "  a  rich  Englishman 
who  had  for  many  years  defended  the  cause  of  the  Arabs  against  the 
English  Government."  The  word  "  rich  "  was  an  unfortunate  one  as 
suggesting  ideas  of  bakshish  to  the  official  mind,  and  I  soon  discovered 
that  the  doors  of  Yildiz  would  need  more  than  one  golden  key  to  open 
for  me,  a  form  of  blackmail  I  was  not  prepared  to  submit  to,  for  I 
have  made  it  a  rule  in  my  dealings  with  Orientals  neither  to  give,  nor 
to  receive,  presents.  Neither  was  I  disposed  to  waste  more  time  than 
a  few  days  waiting  for  this  and  that  arrangement  to  mature.  Never- 
theless I  had  opportunities  given  me  of  seeing  a  good  deal  of  the 
inside  machinery  of  that  singular  abode,  the  Sultan's  residence  and 
its  surroundings.  I  might  of  course  have  obtained  a  formal  audience 
in  the  orthodox  way  by  getting  the  British  Ambassador  to  present  me, 
but  that  would  not  have  served  my  purpose  as  the  conversation  of 
strangers  under  such  circumstances  of  introduction  was  never  more  with 
Abdul  Hamid  than  a  polite  interchange  of  compliments. 

Our  Ambassador  at  the  time  was  Sir  Clare  Ford,  on  whom  we  all 
called,  and  who  received  me  very  cordially  as  a  former  member  of  the 
Diplomatic  service,  and  who  had  for  a  while  worked  there  in  Buhver's 
time  as  an  attache,  but  we  did  not  talk  politics  except  with  Nelidoff,  the 
Russian  Ambassador,  who  was  announced  while  we  were  there,  and 
who  had  at  one  time  been  my  intimate  friend  when  he  and  I  were 
attaches  together  at  Athens.  Nelidoff  always  remembered  our  days 
there  with  pleasure  when  we  met,  and  so  it  was  on  this  occasion.  We 
talked  of  old  times  at  Athens  when  he  and  I  were  still  almost  boys, 
he  three  or  four  years  older  than  me,  and  of  the  paper  chases  we  had 
ridden  together  in  the  olive  woods  with  Dufferin,  he,  too,  still  a  young 
man,  travelling  with  his  mother  in  the  East,  and  who  had  spent  the 
winter  with  us  there.  I  found  him  much  intrigued  about  the  Sultan 
of  Johore,  who  to  his  immense  surprise  found  himself  an  object  of 
vast  curiosity  at  Constantinople,  and  who,  thanks  to  Sheykh  el  Bekri's 
introduction,  had  been  received  with  all  ceremonious  honour  by  Abdul 
Hamid,  though  the  Court  had  refused  from  the  first  to  acknowledge  him 
as  having  any  claim  to  calling  himself  a  Sultan.  Nevertheless  he  was 
credited  by  everyone  with  a  very  high  position  as  a  Mohammedan 
Prince  in  the  Malay  States.  Nelidoff  told  the  story  of  what  the  Sultan's 
chamberlain  had  said  of  him  when  Nelidoff  had  asked  who  and  what 


ioo  Sultan  of  Johore  in  Honour 

he  was.  "  Je  ne  connais  pas  de  Sultan  de  Johore,  mais  il  y  a  un  prince 
de  ce  nom  qui  a  demande  audience  de  sa  Majeste  le  Sultan."  Nelidoff 
was  curious  to  know  how  many  subjects  Johore  contained,  and  when  I 
told  him  "  only  half  a  million  "  was  greatly  disappointed.  He  had  been 
reckoning  on  him,  I  think,  as  a  possible  ally  for  Russia  on  the  borders  of 
India. 

Going  on  the  same  afternoon  (25th  April)  to  a  hotel  where  he  was 
staying  "  I  found  the  Johore  suite  in  the  seventh  heaven  of  delight  over 
their  reception  last  night  by  the  Sultan.  Two  state  carriages  had  been 
sent  for  them  with  an  escort  of  cavalry  —  this  had  been  denied  them 
in  London  at  the  Queen's  Jubilee.  They  had  been  entertained  at  a 
state  banquet,  and  Sultan  Abdul  'Hamid  had  embraced  his  brother 
monarch  and  had  bestowed  on  him  the  First  Class  of  the  Order  of 
Osmanieh  in  diamonds,  and  on  the  suite  correspondingly  high  decora- 
tions. I  did  not  see  the  old  gentleman  himself,  he  being  with  the 
dentist.  Mohammed  Moelhi  alone  was  not  decorated,  though  as  a 
matter  of  fact  it  was  entirely  owing  to  him  that  Johore  had  been  re- 
ceived at  all.  The  Sultan  had  refused  at  first,  saying  he  was  only  an 
Indian  Rajah,  but  Moelhi  managed  to  persuade  the  palace  people 
through  Jemal  ed  Din,  and  the  brilliant  reception  accorded  was  the 
result.  Jemal  ed  Din  was  at  the  banquet,  and  according  to  Ibrahim's 
account,  is  now  in  high  favour  at  Yildiz,  having  succeeded  with  Abdul 
Hamid  by  his  plainspoken  audacity.  The  Sultan  has  offered  him  all 
kinds  of  grades  and  decorations,  but  Jemal  ed  Din  has  wisely  refused, 
and  the  other  day,  on  being  turned  back  by  the  master  of  ceremonies  at 
one  of  the  Bairam  Court  functions,  Jemal  ed  Din  pushed  his  way 
through  notwithstanding,  and  so  attracted  the  Sultan's  notice,  who  sent 
for  him  and  made  him  stand  close  to  him  behind  his  chair,  nearer  even 
than  the  Grand  Eunuch.  So  Jemal  ed  Din  is  the  man  of  whom  to 
solicit  favours,  and  I  am  to  be  taken  to  call  on  him  to-morrow,  the 
episode  of  the  umbrella  in  the  back  room  at  James  Street  being  con- 
signed to  oblivion.  How  foolish  Drummond  Wolff  was  to  change  his 
mind  at  Vienna  and  not  take  the  Seyyid  with  him  to  Constantinople  in 
1885,  as  I  had  arranged  he  should  do.  He  would  have  got  his  Con- 
vention ratified  and  succeeded  where  he  failed.1 

"  26th  April. —  With  Judith  to  luncheon  at  the  Embassy.  The  Ger- 
man Ambassador  was  there,  with  a  Swedish  Count  and  Countess  and 
Carnegie,  a  cousin  of  the  Ambassador,  of  a  branch  of  the  Southesk 
family  settled  in  Prussia,  also  Nicholson,  our  Secretary  of  Embassy, 
next  to  whom  I  sat.  I  found  both  Nicholson  and  Ford  professing 
opinions  favourable  to  the  evacuation  of  Egypt;  indeed,  Ford  intro- 

1  For  Seyyid  Jemal  ed  Din  Afghani's  earlier  career  and  his  visit  to  me  in  Lon- 
don see  my  volume,  "  Gordon  at  Khartoum."  See  also  Professor  Browne's  ac- 
count of  the  Seyyid  in  his  book  on  Persia. 


1893!  Jemal  ed  Din  at  Yildis  101 

duced  me  to  the  German  Ambassador  as  '  the  Englishman  most  strongly 
opposed  to  our  Occupation  of  Egypt.'  Nicholson  married  a  sister  of 
Lady  Dufferin,  and  was  in  Egypt  at  the  time  of  Dufferin's  special  mis- 
sion of  1882-3.  He  gave  me  a  less  rosy-coloured  picture  of  Turkish 
Finance  than  Vincent,  who  is  negotiating  a  new  loan,  and  so  makes  the 
best  of  things  here. 

"  At  three  on  with  Judith  to  Nishantash,  in  the  Musafir  Khaneh,  an 
official  lodging  house  for  distinguished  visitors  attached  to  Yildiz,  where 
Jemal  ed  Din  has  rooms.  The  old  Afghan  received  us  with  open 
arms  and  embraced  me  on  both  cheeks  in  a  room  filled  with  reverend 
Turks,  and  made  Judith  sit  in  the  armchair  of  state,  and  gave  us  tea 
and  coffee  and  entertained  us  for  an  hour  and  a  half.  Anne  had  writ- 
ten him  a  note  of  excuse  in  Arabic,  which  was  read  out  two  or  three 
times  with  great  admiration  at  its  style  and  correctness.  Then  we  had 
a  long  talk  on  politics,  partly  in  Arabic,  partly  in  French,  which  Jemal 
ed  Din  talks  pretty  fluently.  Ibrahim  Moelhi  was  there,  but  the  others 
did  not  understand  us  (very  few  Turks  know  Arabic).  Jemal  ed  Din 
asked  my  opinion  of  the  various  personages  in  Egypt,  the  Khedive, 
Riaz,  Mukhtar,  Tigrane  and  I  also  explained  to  him  the  situation  in 
England.  He  was  there  some  months  last  year,  and  had  got  rather 
incorrect  ideas  —  for  one  thing,  that  the  evacuation  of  Egypt  was  only 
prevented  by  the  Khedive's  coup  d'etat.  He  did  not  understand  that 
the  English  Liberal  party  had  long  before  surrendered  to  Rosebery. 
About  the  state  of  things  here  we  did  not  talk  except  that  the  Sultan 
would  certainly  support  Abbas  as  long  as  he  opposed  us  in  Egypt,  and 
that  no  claim  would  be  put  forward  by  Abdul  Hamid  of  interfering 
with  the  Administration  there.  Altogether  a  satisfactory  visit.  There 
seems  a  good  chance  now  of  my  getting  my  audience  at  Yildiz,  but  I 
told  Jemal  ed  Din  that  I  cannot  wait  longer  than  Monday. 

"  2.7th  April. —  To  the  bazaars  with  Judith  and  the  Walter  Blunts 
(General  Walter  Blunt  Pasha,  an  A.D.C.  of  the  Sultan,  who  had  called 
two  or  three  days  ago  with  his  wife  claiming  relationship,  though  I 
hardly  know  on  what  ground).  He  talked  of  his  family  as  connected 
with  Flaw  Hatch,  in  Sussex,  a  fine-looking  old  man  in  a  very  smart 
uniform.  He  has  been  in  the  Turkish  service  since  1878.  On  our  re- 
turn we  found  Jemal  ed  Din  and  Ibrahim  Moelhi  calling  on  Anne,  who 
told  us  wonderful  tales  of  the  system  of  Palace  management.  It  is 
arranged  that  I  am  to  be  taken  by  the  superintendent  of  the  Musafir 
Khaneh  to  see  Munir  Pasha  to-morrow  during  the  Selamlik.  I  am  not 
to  ask  for  an  audience,  but  only  to  deliver  my  letter  from  Mukhtar 
Pasha.  They  seem  to  think,  however,  that  it  will  require  a  week  or 
more  to  prepare  the  ground  for  an  audience,  since  nothing  here  can  be 
done  in  a  hurry.  I  am  determined  all  the  same  to  leave  on  Monday, 
for  if  I  am  to  do  any  good  I  must  be  back  in  England  before  Whrtsun- 


102  The  Sultan's  Selamlik  [1893 

tide.  The  one  practical  question  I  want  to  ask  the  Sultan  is  whether, 
if  the  English  Government  were  willing  to  open  negotiations  on  the 
lines  of  the  Wolff  Convention,  he  also  would  be  willing,  but  Jemal  ed 
Din  thinks  it  would  be  impossible  at  a  first  audience  to  go  so  far  as 
that. 

"  2&th  April. —  To  the  Selamlik  with  Judith  and  the  Walter  Blunts 
(Anne  being  still  laid  up),  a  really  splendid  spectacle.  It  was  held  in 
front  of  the  new  mosque  at  Yildiz,  and  everything  had  been  done  to 
make  it  impressive,  as  there  were  ninety  officers  of  the  French  fleet 
present,  brought  especially  by  the  Sultan's  yachts  from  the  Dardanelles. 
Sarah  Bernhardt,  too,  was  there,  to  whom  the  display  must  have  had 
a  special  spectacular  meaning.  What  interested  me  most  was  the  large 
number  of  Mohammedan  Sheykhs  and  dignitaries  from  distant  prov- 
inces of  the  empire,  who  followed  the  prayer  outside  the  mosque  and 
took  part  in  the  procession.  This  has  been  the  triumph  of  Abdul 
Hamid's  reign.  In  one  of  the  tribunes  were  a  couple  of  old  Druse 
Sheykhs  in  splendid  attire,  with  whom  I  exchanged  a  few  words,  and 
one  of  them  recognized  me,  having  been  at  Salkhat  when  Anne  and  I 
passed  through  it  on  our  way  to  Nejd  in  1878.  They  were  then,  and  as 
late  as  1881,  at  war  with  the  Sultan,  now  they  are  his  guests,  clothed  in 
robes  of  honour. 

"  When  it  was  over  I  went  with  General  Blunt  to  call  on  Emin  Pasha, 
the  Chamberlain,  and  got  from  him  permission  to  visit  the  Imperial 
Arab  stud  at  the  Sweet  Waters ;  the  General  would  have  gone  with  me 
also  to  Munir  Pasha,  but  I  explained  that  perhaps  Munir  would  sooner 
see  me  alone;  so  presently  the  superintendent  came  for  me  and  took 
me  to  Munir.  There  was  with  him  an  officious  little  man  whom  I 
afterwards  found  to  be  Guarracino,  the  '  Times '  correspondent ;  but 
Munir  sent  him  away.  He  then  read  my  letter  from  Mukhtar  and 
became  cordial.  We  talked  a  little  about  the  affairs  of  Egypt,  and  a 
little  about  my  travels,  and  he  said  he  would  inform  the  Sultan  of  my 
arrival. 

"  In  the  Diplomatic  Box  which  we  occupied  at  the  Selamlik,  I  found 
our  old  friend  Sabunji,1  now  in  fine  feather,  having  a  permanent  post 
as  translator  to  the  Sultan.  He  lives  at  Prinkipo  and  comes  in  twice 
a  week  to  Yildiz.  He  told  me  he  had  had  my  article  '  Lord  Cromer  and 
the  Khedive '  given  him  to  translate,  and  that  the  Sultan  certainly  had 
read  it.  He  advised  me  to  ask  for  an  audience,  but  I  told  him  I  had  no 
time.  General  Blunt  whispered  me  that  he  was  '  a  palace  spy,'  which 
of  course  he  is,  and  therein  lies  his  value ;  he  may  be  of  great  use  to 
us  here.  The  day  was  lovely,  the  view  splendid,  and  I  enjoyed  the 
pageant  as  I  seldom  do  things  of  the  sort. 

"  In  the  evening  we  drove  to  the  Sweet  Waters  and  were  shown  the 

1  See  "  Secret  History." 


1893]  The  Sultans  Arab  Stud  103 

Sultan's  mares.  There  were,  I  believe,  about  150  of  them,  all  'mares 
from  the  Arabs,'  but  the  greater  part  of  them  of  very  small  account. 
Among  the  herd,  however,  one  was  able  to  pick  out  about  a  dozen  really 
good  ones,  and  two  or  three  of  the  first  class.  But  there  was  no  mare 
there  at  all  equal  to  Ali  Pasha  Sherif's  best,  or  the  best  of  our  own. 
The  best  I  found  had  come  from  Ibn  Rashid  who,  two  years  ago,  sent 
thirty.  But  the  Egyptian  who  manages  the  establishment  tells  me  that 
they  will  insist  upon  tall  horses,  and  I  fancy  the  Bedouins  who  send 
the  Sultan  mares  get  the  big  ones  on  purpose  for  him,  and  keep  the 
little  ones,  which  are  the  best.  There  was  a  great  hulking  mare  which 
Sotamm  Ibn  Shaalan  had  brought  with  him,  one  I  feel  sure  was  never 
foaled  among  the  Roala.  Of  horses  they  showed  us  seven,  the  best 
being  without  comparison  a  Seglawi  of  Ali  Pasha  Sherif's,  an  exact 
match  to  our  Shahwan.  This  was  a  really  beautiful  and  perfect  horse, 
but  of  diminutive  size  compared  with  the  others,  and  so  less  esteemed 
here,  though  the  Egyptian  knew  his  worth.  Next  to  him  was  an  im- 
mensely showy  chestnut  from  Ferhan  Jerba,  a  beautifully  topped  horse 
of  great  quality,  but  a  little  overgrown,  and,  so  the  manager  told  me, 
less  good  at  the  stud  than  the  other.  Beyond  these  two  there  was  not 
one  I  would  have  cared  to  own,  two  or  three  of  them  being  quite  unfit 
to  breed  from.  The  management  of  the  stud  is,  I  fancy,  very  defective, 
as  there  were  certainly  four  mares  out  of  five  barren.  There  is,  how- 
ever, enough  material  to  make  a  good  stud  out  of.  I  should  pick  out 
twenty  of  the  best  and  and  sell  the  others.  There  were  a  good  many 
black  mares  among  them,  sent  as  rarities,  but  I  doubt  if  black  is  ever  a 
good  Arab  colour.  One  of  these  came  from  Ibn  Rashid  and  was  the 
best ;  Sarah  Bernhardt  was  also  in  the  paddock  looking  on. 

"  Munir  is  rather  a  fine-looking  man,  with  a  vigorous,  intelligent  face, 
and  modern  manner  —  not  at  all  one  of  the  old-fashioned,  sleepy  Pashas 
—  and  in  all  he  says  he  goes  straight  to  the  point.     He  impressed  me 
favourably. 

"  2gth  April. —  Admiral  Woods  Pasha  called  on  me  and  talked  prin- 
cipally about  the  Armenian  question.  He  says  it  has  been  grossly  ex- 
aggerated in  the  London  press ;  that  he  has  seen  the  text  of  Newberry, 
the  American  Consul's  Report,  which  is  entirely  favourable  to  the 
Sultan's  Government,  that  the  '  Times '  refused  to  publish  it,  that  Sir 
Clare  Ford  had  sent  it  home,  but  that  the  Foreign  Office  ignores  it. 
He  has  written  to  the  '  Daily  Telegraph  '  a  rather  weak  letter  headed, 
'  Justice  to  Turkey  and  the  Turks.'  But  I  told  him  justice  was  quite  out 
of  date  now  in  England,  and  that  he  would  get  a  better  chance  of  a 
hearing  if  he  did  not  speak  of  it.  To  be  listened  to  one  must  threaten, 
not  plead  for  mercy. 

"  To  luncheon  with  the  Sultan  of  Johore  and  his  suite,  including 
Mohammed  Moelhi  and  Ahmed  Pasha  Ali,  A.D.C.  to  Sultan  Abdul 


104  The  Sultan's  Stud  at  Yildiz  [1893 

Hamid,  who  has  been  attached  to  Johore  for  the  period  of  his  stay. 
This  Ahmed  is  the  same  who  was  sent  to  us  by  the  Sultan  nine  years 
ago  to  show  us  over  the  palaces  and  treasury,  a  good-natured,  courtly 
personage,  said  to  be  the  most  be-decorated  of  any  in  Turkey.  Our 
conversation  at  table  was  a  regular  Tower  of  Babel,  for  though  we 
were  only  ten  people,  we  were  talking  five  different  languages,  English, 
French,  Turkish,  Arabic,  and  Malay. 

"  In  the  afternoon  we  went  with  the  Walter  Blunts  to  see  the  Sultan's 
stables  at  Yildiz  —  first,  however,  to  call  on  the  director  of  it,  Izzet 
Pasha,  the  most  European  Oriental  I  have  ever  met.  We  found  him  in 
trouble,  his  son  having  attempted  to  commit  suicide  the  day  before 
through  a  love  affair.  He  talked  of  this  quite  as  a  European  might. 
He  was  sitting  in  his  house  near  Yildiz,  in  a  rough  kind  of  smoking  suit, 
his  hair  en  brosse,  and  no  fez  —  rather  a  picturesque  looking  man,  who 
might  have  been  a  French  or  Italian  artist.  One  certainly  would  never 
have  guessed  him  an  Oriental.  He  talked  a  good  deal  of  heresy  about 
horse-breeding,  declared  that  nine  out  of  ten  Arabs  had  unsound  hocks 
(an  absurdity),  and  they  were  all  unsound  one  way  or  the  other.  He 
says  there  is  hardly  a  horse  or  mare  sent  by  the  Bedouins  to  the  Sultan 
which  would  pass  a  veterinary  examination.  This  may  perhaps  be  true, 
as  I  daresay  they  pass  on  their  unsound  ones  when  they  are  making 
presents,  to  say  nothing  of  the  horses  they  send  getting  changed  on 
their  road  to  Constantinople. 

"  At  the  stables,  which  are  inside  Yildiz  Park  wall,  we  found  a 
splendid  collection  of  stallions  arranged  in  stalls  according  to  their 
colours,  gray,  black,  or  bay  —  very  few  chestnuts.  Among  these  the 
most  remarkable  were,  I  think,  half-a-dozen  brought  by  Nasr  el  Ashgar, 
Sheykh  of  the  Montefik,  and  several  very  fine  ones  from  Mohammed 
Ibn  Rashid,  and  others  presented  singly  by  Walys  of  Bagdad.  There 
were  some  enormously  powerful  horses  among  the  bays,  and  one  very 
fine  black  horse  from  Ibn  Rashid.  But  there  was  unfortunately  no 
intelligent  person  to  explain,  nor  anybody  who  knew  Arabic,  except  a 
black  slave.  In  the  first  stable  there  were  about  sixty  horses,  nearly  all 
of  high  quality,  but  we  could  not  have  more  than  two  or  three  led  out, 
so  it  was  impossible  really  to  judge  them.  Beyond  these  were  a  couple 
of  hundred  more,  inferior  ones,  in  another  stable,  and  yet  a  third  and 
fourth  stable  with  European  animals.  A  very  old  white  Arab  horse 
was  shown  us  as  the  Sultan's  favourite  for  riding,  but  they  say  he 
seldom  gets  on  horseback.  Altogether  the  grandest  Arab  collection  I 
have  seen,  and  far  superior  in  quality  to  the  mares  we  saw  yesterday. 

"  Dined  at  Ahmed  Ali's  in  Stamboul  with  Johore  and  his  suite ;  a 
dull  dinner  in  the  modern  Turkish  style,  with  music  during  it  —  which 
I  hate.  Our  host  showed  us  with  pride  some  astonishing  daubs  he  had 
perpetrated  at  Paris  twenty  years  ago,  and  some  of  which  he  had  even 


1893]  Sabunji,  the  Sultan's  Secretary  105 

exhibited.  He  had  also  painted  his  dining-room  walls  not  badly  with 
representations  of  orange  and  lemon  trees  in  tubs. 

"  On  my  return  I  found  that  Munir  had  called,  but  I  shall  not  put  off 
my  departure  unless  I  have  an  audience  fixed  for  a  special  day  and 
hour.  Mohammed  is  to  find  this  out  definitely  and  bring  me  word  to- 
morrow. 

"  ist  May. —  A  dull  morning,  with  a  Black  Sea  fog  and  cold.  Hear- 
ing nothing  from  the  Palace,  we  have  taken  our  places  by  to-night's 
Orient  express.  Called  on  Ford  to  say  good-bye,  also  on  Woods 
Pasha.  Yesterday  I  saw  Jemal  ed  Din  at  Nishantash.  He  was  urgent 
I  should  stay  on  to  see  the  Sultan,  and  said  he  would  go  at  once  to  the 
Chief  Chamberlain  to  get  a  definite  answer.  But  no  answer  has  come. 
I  called  also  on  Abdullah  Pasha  Nejdi  (Ibn  Thennayan  Ibn  Saoud)  at 
his  house  in  Yildiz.  He  lamented  being  kept  a  prisoner  here  and 
longed  to  be  back  in  Nejd.  But  the  Sultan  is  kind  to  him.  I  went  with 
Serrur  the  Soudani. 

"  To-day  Sabunji  called.  He  came  here  two  years  ago  with  some 
Englishmen  to  get  a  railway  concession,  which  came  to  nothing,  but  he 
stayed  on  till  the  Sultan,  hearing  of  him  through  Munif  Pasha,  sent 
for  him  and  made  him  translator.  He  now  has  to  read  and  digest  all 
the  newspapers  of  England,  France,  and  Italy,  and  to  write  precis  of 
their  contents  in  Turkish  for  the  Sultan.  He  sees  the  Sultan  from 
time  to  time  and  sometimes  talks  to  him  about  European  politics  or  his- 
tory or  archaeology,  of  which  Abdul  Hamid  is  fond.  He  gets  £40  a 
month  and  a  house  at  Prinkipo,  and  so  is  in  clover.  He  says  the  Sultan 
in  afraid  to  employ  good  men  in  high  positions  for  fear  they  should 
become  too  popular.  Thus  Said  Pasha  was  dismissed  a  year  and  a 
half  ago  because  he  had  become  popular  with  the  army  by  paying  the 
soldiers  regularly.  Lately,  Vincent  went  to  the  Sultan  with  proofs 
of  the  roguery  of  the  Minister  of  Marine.  The  Sultan  gave  him  in 
return  another  paper  wherein  the  same  and  many  more  robberies  were 
recorded.  He  had  long  known  all  about  it. 

"  At  two  Ibrahim  Moelhy  came  to  beseech  me  to  stay  on  a  few  days 
till  next  Thursday,  only  another  twenty-four  hours,  but  I  was  ob- 
durate. '  I  am  not  a  fakir,'  I  said,  '  to  sit  at  the  Palace  door  waiting. 
I  am  not  the  Sultan's  servant,  nor  will  I  dance  attendance  on  any  king 
in  the  world.  If  the  Sultan  wants  to  see  me  he  must  send  and  say 
so  and  I  will  come,  but  to-night  I  go  home.'  So  he  went  back  to 
Nishantash. 

"  At  five  came  the  Sultan  of  Johore  with  Mohammed  Moelhi,  who 
has  just  received  the  second  class  of  the  Mejidieh  from  Abdul  Hamid. 
So  they  are  all  happy.  At  six  Ibrahim  and  Mohammed  returned  to  sec 
us  to  the  train.  All  now  is  satisfactorily  settled.  We  are  to  go  as 
arranged  to  England,  but  Jemal  ed  Din  is  so  to  manage  matters  that  the 


io6  The  Armenian  Movement  [1893 

Sultan  will  send  for  me  some  time  during  the  summer,  and  he  will 
obtain  for  Anne  the  Chefket  Order  in  diamonds  as  a  sign  of  extreme 
favour.  In  the  meantime  I  am  to  write  to  Jemal  ed  Din  letters  which 
he  can  show  to  the  Sultan  on  political  affairs  in  England.  Thus  I  shall 
be  his  unaccredited  Ambassador.  The  two  matters  they  want  prin- 
cipally to  be  informed  about  are  Armenia  and  Egypt.  And  so,  much 
pleased  with  all  that  has  happened  during  our  week's  stay  at  Constan- 
tinople, we  are  off  and  away." 

Thus  ended  the  eventful  spring  of  1893  and  my  part  in  what  hap- 
pened during  it  at  Cairo.  On  our  way  back  from  Constantinople  I 
note: 

"  2nd  May. —  In  the  train  all  day  crossing  the  great  plain  of  Eastern 
Roumelia,  the  Balkans  to  the  north  and  the  Rhodope  range  to  the  south, 
a  splendid  plain  full  of  storks  and  large  birds  of  prey,  with  a  few 
rollers  —  frogs  croaking  gaily,  bright  sunshine.  This  part  of  Bulgaria 
seems  very  prosperous  —  the  peasants  still  in  their  national  costume, 
the  villages  still  with  their  minarets,  though  most  of  the  Mohammedan 
population  is  gone. 

"  Mr.  Thompson,  the  U.S.  Minister  at  Constantinople,  is  in  the  train. 
Ford  had  given  me  a  note  of  introduction  to  him.  He  has  told  me 
much  about  Armenia,  having  just  sent  in  a  report  on  the  subject  to  his 
Government.  He  says  that  it  is  proved  the  Armenians  intended  a 
revolt  on  the  5th  January,  but  were  betrayed  by  one  of  their  own  people. 
The  placards  inciting  the  people  to  rise  were  printed  in  England — • 
no  Turks  were  concerned  in  it.  Also  he  tells  me  the  whole  resident 
Armenian  census  is  under  three-quarters  of  a  million  as  against  five 
millions  of  Mohammedans.  The  only  province  where  the  Christians 
outnumber  the  Moslems  is  Kaisariyeh,  the  smallest  of  the  villayets  — 
there  they  may  be  three  to  one.  There  was  some  reason  for  their  dis- 
content in  the  way  of  injustice,  especially  through  the  tyranny  of  a 
certain  ex-brigand,  Kurshid  Pasha,  chief  of  the  police,  but  the  measures 
taken  by  the  Government  were  not  very  severe.  All  the  prisoners  have 
now  been  released  except  200,  and  these  he  had  been  promised  should 
not  be  severely  punished  though  reserved  for  trial.  He  has  been  acting 
in  concert  with  Ford  in  the  matter.  He  says  emphatically  that  there  is 
not  the  material  in  Armenia  to  make  a  nation,  though  the  Christian 
Armenians  desire  it.  Their  brethren  under  Russia  would  revolt  too  if 
they  dared.  The  Catholic  Armenians  are  with  the  rest  in  desiring  in- 
dependence. The  whole  movement  has  been  got  up  in  England  and 
with  English  help. 

"  yd  May. —  Thompson  tells  me  there  may  be  trouble  with  Russia  at 
Constantinople  soon,  as  the  young  King  of  Servia  wants  to  go  there 
and  do  homage,  while  the  Russian  Emperor  is  opposed  to  it.  The  Rus- 
sians supported  the  Regency  at  Belgrade  and  are  angry  with  the  King. 


1893]  Back  across  Europe  to  England  107 

He  talked  also  of  American  politics  and  the  desire  in  Canada  for  an- 
nexation to  the  U.S.,  the  U.S.  being  unwilling  on  account  of  the  large 
half-Indian,  half-French  population,  one  million,  and  160,000  natural- 
ized Chinese.  He  says,  however,  it  must  come  about,  through  reasons 
of  interest  for  the  Canadians. 

"  Passed  to-day  through  Hungary  —  many  well  bred  horses.  The 
gray  breed  of  cattle  extends  from  Constantinople  to  Pesth.  It  seems 
the  same  as  the  Roman  breed,  but  with  variation.  In  Turkey  the  shape 
is  nearer  to  the  Highland  Scotch  breed. 

"  4th  May. —  Passing  through  Germany  we  got  English  papers  with 
an  account  of  the  debate  in  Parliament  on  Dilke's  Egyptian  motion. 
The  French  papers  express  disappointment.  To  me  it  seems  most 
reassuring.  Gladstone  clearly  and  emphatically  repudiates  indefinite 
occupation  —  talks  of  convening  a  European  Conference  as  soon  as  the 
condition  of  things  in  Egypt  returns  to  the  normal.  This  must  put  a 
stop  to  Cramer's  annexation  policy." 


CHAPTER  VI 
CROMER'S  HEAVY  HAND 

On  my  return  to  England  after  this  eventful  winter  I  found  myself, 
a  rare  thing  in  my  public  life,  almost  popular.  I  was  considered  to 
have  got  the  better  of  Cromer  in  our  Egyptian  battle,  and  that  Cromer 
had  blundered  badly  in  his  diplomacy.  Labouchere,  whom  I  called  on 
first,  promised  help  about  getting  up  an  Egyptian  Committee,  and  that 
he  would  consult  Dilke  about  it.  "  As  to  Gladstone,"  he  told  me,  "  the 
question  of  evacuating  Egypt  is  one  merely  of  his  parliamentary 
majority.  'Can  you  show  me  a  majority?'  the  old  man  says,  when 
questioned  about  it ;  he  cares  nothing  any  longer  for  any  political  ques- 
tion, even  Ireland,  only  to  stay  in  power.  His  answer  to  Dilke  about 
Egypt  was  a  mere  juggling  with  words  and  meant  nothing." 

I  write  the  same  day,  May  9,  "  I  found  George  Wyndham,  with 
Henley,  the  hospital  poet  (  a  bitter  talker,  but  a  sayer  of  good  things), 
much  pleased  with  his  own  parliamentary  success,  now  he  is  in  opposi- 
tion and  free  to  talk  as  he  pleases.  He  expressed  only  a  modified  dis- 
approval of  my  doings  in  Egypt.  I  gather  from  him  that  even  the 
Conservatives  think  Baring  has  made  a  mess  of  things." 

"  nth  May. —  To  Downing  Street,  where  Harcourt  received  me  with 
a  slight  show  of  severity  at  first.  '  I  hear/  he  said,  '  you  have  been 
raising  up  no  end  of  trouble  in  Egypt.  Cromer  says  you  have  been 
combining  against  him  with  Mukhtar  Pasha  and  the  Sultan,  and  the 
Khedive,  to  bring  back  Arabi,  and  that  you  are  the  instigator  of  all  that 
happened  four  months  ago.'  I  said,  '  I  was  an  accomplice  after  the 
fact,  not  its  instigator,'  and  gave  him  in  brief  what  had  happened. 
'  Well,'  he  said,  laughing,  '  I  suppose  we  shall  have  to  put  in  force  the 
old  statute,  Ne  exeat  regno,  to  keep  you  from  mischief.'  While  we 
were  talking,  Eddy  Hamilton  came  in,  but  this  did  not  interrupt  the 
conversation.  '  The  worst  of  it  is,'  said  Sir  William,  '  that  it  puts 
your  friends  into  a  difficult  position.  Mr.  Gladstone,  Morley,  and  I, 
are  strongly  for  evacuation,  but  while  there  is  trouble  in  Egypt  this  is 
impossible.'  I  asked  him,  '  Can  you  really  tell  me  that  you  would  have 
negotiated  for  an  exacuation  if  nothing  of  this  had  happened?  Would 
you  not  have  argued  that  while  things  are  going  on  so  well,  and  we 
were  doing  so  much  good  in  Egypt,  it  would  be  better  to  let  well  alone  ?  ' 
'  We  should  certainly  have  begun  negotiations,'  he  said.  He  then  asked 

108 


1893]  Salisbury  Angry  with  Cromer  109 

about  the  influence  of  the  French  in  Egypt,  and  said  that  if  the  French 
were  willing  to  negotiate  on  the  basis  of  the  Drummond  Wolff  Conven- 
tion there  would  be  no  difficulty,  but  he  had  lately  asked  Waddington 
(the  French  Ambassador),  and  Waddington  had  answered  that  the 
French  Government  could  hardly  approve  now  what  it  had  so  strenu- 
ously opposed  six  years  ago.  Waddington  had  also  maintained  that 
France  had  been  given  definite  rights  in  Egypt  by  England  at  the 
Congress  of  Berlin.  Sir  William  wanted  to  know  about  this,  and  I  told 
him  of  the  terms  made  between  Salisbury  and  Waddington  for  the 
seizure  of  Tunis,  equal  rights  in  Egypt  and  privileges  in  Syria.  I  told 
him,  too,  of  my  conversation  with  d'Estournelles  whom  I  had  met  as  I 
crossed  over  to  England  on  the  5th,  and  had  been  introduced  to  by 
Alfred  Lyall  who  happened  to  be  on  board.  I  had  discussed  the  whole 
Egyptian  question  with  him  till  half  way  across  the  Channel,  when  the 
sea  stopped  us,  and  had  found  him  very  sympathetic  with  my  views. 
'  Well/  said  Harcourt,  when  you  write  to  your  friends  in  Egypt  tell 
them  to  keep  quiet,  and  we  will  in  a  very  short  time  begin  negotiations. 
The  difficulty  is  in  the  country  and  in  the  House  of  Commons,  where 
we  should  not  have  a  majority  in  favour  of  evacuation,  and  also  with 
the  French  Government/  I  repeated  to  him  my  talk  with  d'Estour- 
nelles, and  that  I  wa*s  sure  the  French  Government  would  agree  easily 
enough  after  the  General  Elections.  '  Do  you  authorize  me/  I  asked, 
'  to  say  to  my  friends  at  Cairo  that  if  they  will  work  harmoniously 
with  Cromer,  we  will  enter  on  negotiations  for  a  withdrawal  of 
the  troops,  say  in  the  autumn?'  He  said,  'Yes/  But  at  this  Eddy 
Hamilton  made  a  grimace  of  dissent  and  he  corrected  himself.  '  I  can 
authorize  you  to  say  what  Mr.  Gladstone  said  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons the  other  day/  We  parted  in  all  amity,  he  joking  about  the  pos- 
sibility of  my  having  been  seen  in  Downing  Street  at  his  door.  '  Rose- 
bery/  he  said,  '  has  doubtless  got  his  touts  on  the  look  out  for  you,  and 
I  must  beg  you,  when  you  come  again,  to  put  on  a  false  nose.  I  will 
let  you  out  through  the  garden  gate/  Eddy  will,  I  feel  sure,  repeat  all 
this  to  Rosebery,  but  I  do  not  care  if  he  does. 

"  Coming  home  to  Wentworth  House  (where  we  were  staying  for 
the  season),  I  found  Lady  Lytton,  and  took  a  walk  with  her.  She 
tells  me  that  Lord  Salisbury  is  so  angry  with  Cromer  for  his  mis- 
management of  affairs  at  Cairo  that  he  says  he  is  unfit  to  succeed  Lord 
Lansdowne  in  India,  so  no  wonder  Cromer  is  angry  with  me.  I  am 
quite  satisfied  with  the  way  my  action  has  been  taken  in  the  official 
world,  and  I  think  Lady  Lytton  sees  that  after  all  I  was  right. 

"  I2//1  May. —  Lunched  with  George  Wyndham,  and  again  found 
Henley  there,  and  with  them  a  clever  young  man,  Whibley,  who  writes 
for  him  in  the  '  National  Observer/  George  gave  us  some  admirable 
descriptions  of  battle  scenes  he  had  been  present  at  in  the  Soudan,  and 


no  "Peer  of  the  House  of  Commons"  [l%93 

set  beiore  us  the  things  he  had  seen  and  felt  as  one  reads  them  in 
Kipling. 

"  I4th  May  (Sunday). —  Spent  the  morning  writing  to  the  Sheykh 
el  Bekri.  Then  to  see  Loulou  Harcourt  who  is  in  bed  at  a  private 
hospital  for  some  slight  operation,  but  is  able  to  receive  friends.  He 
says  he  expects  the  Government  to  win  at  the  General  Elections  next 
year,  as  they  will  take  other  bills  besides  the  Home  Rule  Bill  and 
appeal  to  the  country  against  the  Lords. 

"  2ist  May. —  Lunched  with  d'Estournelles.  He  professes  the  great- 
est admiration  for  my  politics,  but  that  I  suspect  is  because  I  oppose 
English  policy  in  Egypt. 

"  ist  June. —  Dined  at  Lady  Galloway's  in  Upper  Grosvenor  Street, 
Philip  Currie  being  there  with  others.  She  is  by  birth  a  Cecil, 
half  sister  to  Lord  Salisbury,  an  altogether  noble  soul." 

This  marks  the  beginning  of  a  friendship  which  put  me  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Cecil  section  of  the  Conservative  party  and  their  ideas  of 
foreign  policy.  Lady  Galloway  who  spent  much  of  her  time  travelling, 
was  of  considerable  use  to  her  brother  in  regard  to  what  was  passing 
on  the  Continent. 

"  $th  June. —  Gave  a  dinner  in  Mount  Street  to  Margot  and  Betty 
Balfour,  Harry  Cust  and  d'Estournelles;  the  latter,  who  came  in  full 
uniform  on  his  way  to  a  State  Concert,  was  very  amusing,  giving  us  his 
ideas  about  English  women  and  English  men. 

"  i2th  June. —  I  hear  from  Lefevre  that  the  despatches  exchanged 
between  Rosebery  and  Cromer  are  '  most  curious.'  Cromer  was  for 
the  wildest  violence  against  the  Khedive,  but  he  was  given  a  douche 
which  has  brought  him  to  his  senses.  He  is,  however,  quite  out  of 
favour. 

"  ijth  June. —  With  Judith  and  Anne  to  a  garden  party  at  Kew, 
given  by  George  Lefevre  in  his  official  capacity  (as  Commissioner  of 
the  Board  of  Works).  The  party  was  to  meet  at  the  pier  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  go  up  the  river  in  two  steamers.  As  we  did 
not  know  precisely  where  the  pier  was  we  stopped  outside  the  House 
of  Lords  to  ask  a  policeman. 

"  Dialogue : 

"  L  '  Can  you  tell  me  where  I  shall  find  the  pier  of  the  House  of 
Commons  ? ' 

"  Policeman.    '  What  peer  did  you  say?  ' 

"  /.     '  The  pier  of  the  House  of  Commons.' 

"  Policeman.  '  No,  sir,  indeed,  we  have  plenty  of  peers  of  the  House 
of  Lords,  but  I  never  yet  heard  of  a  peer  of  the  House  of  Commons." 

On  the  boat  with  us  were  old  Maud  Stanley,  Carlisle,  Maisie  Stanley 
and  her  daughter,  Lord  and  Lady  Denbigh,  T.  P.  O'Connor  and  his 
wife  and  the  Mathew  family,  Justin  McCarthy,  Lord  Acton  and  Lady 


1893]  Burne-Jones  on  Morris  in 

Harcourt,  a  very  pleasant  party,  and  a  day  of  tropical  heat.  The  party 
had  been  invited  to  meet  the  Teck  family,  who  arrived  for  tea,  with 
the  Duke  of  York  and  Princess  May. 

"  2ist  June. —  To  a  party  at  Lady  Salisbury's,  where  I  again  met 
Prince  George  and  Princess  May. 

"  2jth  June. —  Lunched  with  Lady  Galloway,  where  I  met  Mackenzie 
Wallace ;  then  on  to  Grosvenor  Square,  where  Margot  was  entertain- 
ing Princess  Helene  and  a  dozen  more  ladies  to  see  the  performance  of 
a  Spanish  dancer,  Candida  Lopez. 

"  2&th  June. —  To  an  open  air  play  at  Pope's  Villa  at  Twickenham, 
where  Labouchere  was  our  entertainer,  a  queer  omnium  gatherum, 
conspicuous  among  the  guests  being  Sir  William  Harcourt,  Monty 
Corry,  and  numerous  Irish  members.  Most  of  these  last  I  had  not 
seen  since  my  retirement  from  Home  Rule  politics.  They  were  very 
cordial.  '  We  treated  you  very  badly,'  Healy  said,  '  in  not  giving  you 
an  Irish  seat,  we  ought  to  have  made  an  exception  in  your  favour.' 
'  Indeed,'  I  said,  '  I  am  very  glad  you  did  not.'  Dr.  Kenny  and  John 
Redmond  spoke  to  me  in  the  same  sense.  I  was  especially  glad  to  meet 
Dillon,  and  had  some  talk  with  him  about  Egypt.  He  told  me  the  last 
two  years  had  been  the  hardest  and  most  thankless  work  he  had  ever 
had  to  do. 

"  The  play  was  '  The  Tempest/  done  with  Sullivan's  music,  pretty 
but  quite  inept.  Certainly  Shakespeare  was  here  at  his  very  worst. 
What  can  be  stupider  than  Caliban  and  the  drunken  sailors  ?  The  other 
characters  pompous  and  flat.  But  beautiful  songs.  Ariel  was  wonder- 
fully well  acted  by  Dora  Labouchere,  a  child  of  ten. 

"  soth  June. —  With  Judith  to  lunch  with  Burne-Jones,  where  he  had 
asked  her  to  sit  to  him.  His  wife  and  son,  and  sister-in-law,  Mrs. 
Kipling,  were  there.  During  the  two  hours'  sitting  he  had  of  Judith 
he  was  most  entertaining,  telling  us  stories  of  William  Morris's  oddities. 
One  of  the  chairs  in  the  studio  we  observed  was  rickety.  '  Yes,'  he 
said,  '  Morris  has  sat  in  them  all,  and  he  has  a  muscular  movement  in 
his  back  peculiar  to  himself,  which  makes  the  rungs  fly  out.'  He  and 
Morris  are  devoted  friends,  and  Morris  comes  every  Sunday  to  spend 
the  morning  with  him,  and  has  done  so  for,  I  think  he  said,  thirty  years. 
'  I  have  never  taken  a  fortnight's  holiday  away  from  London,'  he  went 
on,  '  for  twenty-three  years.  That  is  because  I  am  constitutionally  idle. 
Millais  used  to  say  of  me,  when  we  were  young  men,  that  I  was  so 
lazy  that  when  I  began  to  work,  I  was  too  lazy  to  stop.  And  so  it  has 
always  been.  I  have  constantly  wished  to  get  away  to  Egypt  and  to 
Mount  Sinai  and  to  Jerusalem,  but  I  am  deterred  by  the  thought  that  I 
can  get  to  any  of  these  places  in  a  week.  I  should  like  it  to  take  at 
least  six  months,  travelling  slowly  through  France  and  Italy,  and  ar- 
riving gradually,  so  as  to  be  two  years  away.  As  this  is  impossible 


112  Trouble  about  Siam 

I  stay  on  in  North  End  Grove.  The  garden  here  is  a  constant  pleasure 
to  me,  because  I  say  to  myself,  my  neighbours  are  calculating  how 
much  it  is  worth  a  foot  for  building/  And  so  on  and  so  on,  always 
with  a  delightful  humour  and  a  voice  of  sweetest  calibre.  The  draw- 
ing meanwhile  got  rapidly  finished,  though  it  seemed  as  if  he  had  done 
nothing  but  talk.  It  was  a  lovely  sketch  in  red  chalk.  [This  drawing 
was  to  have  been  given  to  Judith,  but  somehow  it  never  reached  her, 
and  must  have  been  sold,  we  think,  with  the  rest  of  his  drawings  after 
his  death.  We  have  been  unable  to  trace  it.]  He  was  very  compli- 
mentary about  Judith,  and  was  quite  affectionate  to  me  at  parting. 
This  put  us  in  good  spirits,  and  we  rushed  away  down  to  Crabbet, 
Judith's  London  season  being  over.  She  tells  me  she  has  enjoyed  it 
immensely. 

"  ist  July. —  Crabbet.  Annual  meeting  of  the  Crabbet  Club.  We 
sat  down  over  twenty  to  dinner,  and  did  not  leave  the  table  till  half- 
past  one.  The  members  present  were : 

George  Curzon.  Hubert  Howard. 

George  Leveson  Gore.  Godfrey  Webb. 

George  Wyndham.  Percy  Wyndham. 

George  Peel  (the  4  Georges)  Loulou  Harcourt. 

Morpeth.  Theodore  Fry. 

Mark  Napier.  Theobald  Mathew. 

Harry  Cust.  Charles  Laprimaudaye, 

Charles  Gatty.  and  Laurence  Currie. 

"  St.  George  Lane  Fox,  and  two  new  men,  Esme  Howard  and  Eddy 
Tennant. 

"  George  Curzon  was,  as  usual,  the  most  brilliant,  he  never  flags  for 
an  instant  either  in  speech  or  repartee;  after  him  George  Wyndham, 
Mark  Napier,  and  Webber.  The  next  day,  Sunday,  Harry  Cust  won 
the  Tennis  Cup,  and  the  Laureateship  was  adjudged  to  Curzon. 

"  i6th  July. —  The  French  have  been  attacking  Siam  in  a  way  dan- 
gerous to  the  general  peace.  We  were  giving  a  Saturday  to  Monday 
party  at  Crabbet,  and  George  Curzon  arrived  full  of  the  case.  He 
was  to  have  adjourned  the  House  yesterday,  but  Rosebery  begged 
him  not,  as  Develle,  the  French  Prime  Minister,  had  explained  that  he 
was  isolated  in  his  Cabinet  in  favour  of  conciliatory  measures,  all  the 
other  Ministers  backing  up  the  French  Admiral.  George  asked  Rose- 
bery point  blank  whether  he  could  say  that  the  English  Government 
would  resist  all  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  French  to  violate  the  inde- 
pendence of  Siam  west  of  the  river  Mekong,  and  Rosebery  assured  him 
that  they  would  do  so.  I  had  some  talk  also  with  Philip  Currie  who 
is  here,  about  it  and  about  Egypt.  He  condemned  Baring's  policy  of 


1893]  Abbas  and  Abdul  Hamid  113 

the  last  few  years,  especially  as  to  judicial  reforms,  and  agreed  with 
many  of  my  own  views  on  other  points.  He  said  of  Dufferin  that  he 
had  been  a  failure  in  Paris.  Dufferin  had  left  Paris  in  a  huff  at  the 
continued  attacks  made  on  him  in  the  French  press.  George  Curzon 
was  very  amusing. 

"2nd  Aug. —  My  news  from  Paris  is  (from  a  source  within  the 
Embassy)  that  Dufferin  has  been  undoubtedly  a  failure  there;  he  is  too 
fond  of  paying  little  insincere  compliments,  and  his  wife  is  too  un- 
genial.  There  is  a  very  bitter  feeling  in  all  classes  now  against  Eng- 
land, and  just  at  this  moment  it  is  at  fever  heat  about  Siam.  After  a 
deal  of  swagger  Rosebery  has  knuckled  down.  It  is  a  robbers'  quarrel 
over  their  spoils. 

"  17 th  Aug. —  Osman  Bey  Ghaleb  was  here  at  luncheon,  a  very  in- 
telligent man.  He  left  Egypt  in  the  middle  of  June,  and  stayed  a  month 
or  more  at  Constantinople,  being  there  when  the  Khedive  came  to  do 
homage.  He  tells  me  that  great  preparations  had  been  made  to  receive 
Abbas,  but  at  the  last  moment  the  Sultan  was  frightened  and  counter- 
ordered  everything,  so  that  Abbas  was  received  meanly  by  half-a-dozen 
inferior  officials,  none  above  the  rank  of  Bey.  In  public  this  attitude 
was  maintained  throughout  towards  him,  but  privately,  Osman  says, 
it  was  different,  and  the  Sultan  received  the  Khedive  four  or  five  times 
quite  alone  and  had  long  talks  with  him.  On  going  away  Abbas  de- 
clared openly  to  his  suite  that  his  journey  had  been  a  failure,  but  this 
he  thinks  was  merely  to  throw  dust  in  English  eyes,  for  he  said,  '  Abbas 
is  a  proud  young  man,  and  if  he  had  really  been  ill  received  by  the 
Sultan  he  would  never  have  returned  to  Cairo,  he  would  have  thrown 
himself  overboard  first.'  It  is  difficult  to  understand  the  Sultan's  object 
in  all  this.  Osman  lays  it  entirely  on  his  timidity.  The  English  Am- 
bassador, he  says,  bullied  him  (poor  Ford!)  on  the  Armenian  question, 
and  frightened  him  with  threats  of  intervention,  but  what  folly !  Even 
Gladstone  could  hardly  bombard  Constantinople  or  seize  the  ports  of 
the  Hedjaz.1 

"  2yd  Aug. —  We  had  a  private  performance  this  evening  of  my 
play,  '  The  Bride  of  the  Nile,'  the  Lytton  girls  acting  it,  and  Lady  Clare 
Feilding  and  Judith."  [N.B.  I  had  written  this  extravaganza  while 
in  Egypt  as  a  relief  to  my  feelings,  and  to  make  fun  of  Baring  and 
the  British  Occupation,  taking  as  my  text  an  incident  narrated  by 
Abulfeda  as  having  happened  at  the  time  of  the  Arab  invasion  by  Amru, 
when  the  relations  between  Egypt  and  the  Roman  Empire  were  not  un- 
like those  now  existing  with  the  British  Empire.  The  play  with  our 
home  circle  at  Crabbet  had  a  considerable  success.] 

I  spent  the  month  of  September  in  Scotland  making  a  family  tour  of 

1  This  Osman  Ghaleb  became  afterwards  the  principal  friend  and  supporter  of 
the  National  Leader,  Mustapha  Kamel. 


H4  Swinburne  and  the  Laiireateship 

visits ;  to  the  Glen,  Lochnaw,  and  Cumloden,  but  there  is  nothing  in  my 
diary  of  any  public  interest.  On  our  way  back,  I  find : 

"  IQ//J  Oct. —  At  Saighton.  Spencer  Lyttleton  came  to-day  from 
Hawarden  to  luncheon  and  we  had  a  great  discussion  about  the  Poet 
Laureateship.  He  declares  that  Gladstone  will  in  all  probability  not 
make  any  appointment  to  the  office.  The  general  sense  of  the  Govern- 
ment is  in  favour  of  Swinburne,  and  it  has  been  ascertained  that  Swin- 
burne would  like  to  be  appointed,  but  the  Queen  is  opposed  on  account 
of  the  immorality  of  his  early  songs,  and  also  on  account  of  his  having 
written  against  the  Russian  Emperor  (he  had  suggested  his  assassina- 
tion many  years  before,  and  the  Queen,  who  regarded  the  Laureateship 
as  an  office  in  her  personal  household,  considered  that  this  made  him 
absolutely  impossible  as  a  candidate).  'The  one  thing  we  are  afraid 
of,'  Lyttleton  said,  '  is  having  Lewis  Morris  thrust  on  us.  William 
Morris  will  not  take  it,  and  so  no  appointment  will  be  made." 

"  2yd  Oct. —  Once  more  at  Crabbet.  Yesterday  we  had  a  visit  from 
Baron  de  Nolde,  a  Russian  traveller,  who  has  just  come  back  from 
Nejd,  where  he  has  seen  Ibn  Rashid.  He  carried  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion with  him  from  the  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  who,  he  said,  made  use  of 
him  as  an  informal  envoy  to  bring  him  word  of  the  exact  state  of 
affairs  in  Arabia.  Mohammed  Ibn  Aruk  (our  old  travelling  companion 
in  1878)  went  with  him,  and  they  followed  the  same  route  as  we  did 
from  Damascus  to  Hail  except  that  they  crossed  the  Nefud  at  a  point 
farther  to  the  east.  At  Hail  Nolde  found  Hamoud  Ibn  Rashid  acting 
as  Regent,  and  was  forwarded  on  by  him  to  the  Emir  Ibn  Rashid  by 
way  of  Bereyda  and  Shaggra  to  his  camp  near  Riad.  The  Emir  enter- 
tained him  there  for  ten  days,  then  sent  him  back  with  a  present  of  a 
mare  and  two  deluls  to  Meshed  Ali.  Nolde  says  his  journey  cost  him 
£6,000,  ours  cost  us  about  £200.  He  is  a  very  clever  man  with  a  very 
forbidding  face,  not  unlike  Burton's.  He  stayed  the  whole  day  with 
us  and  showed  some  knowledge  of  Arab  horses. 

"  4th  Nov. —  I  have  been  much  occupied  during  this  week  about  the 
Matabele  War,  which  has  at  last  come  to  fighting  and  much  slaughter  of 
black  men  by  white.  I  took  counsel  on  the  subject  with  the  good 
Evelyn,  who  was  for  two  nights  at  Crabbet,  and  we  agreed  to  make 
some  demonstration  of  our  disapproval.  In  the  meanwhile  I  have  writ- 
ten strongly  to  T.  P.  O'Connor  on  the  subject,  upbraiding  him  and  the 
other  Irish  members  for  their  silence. 

"  $th  Nov. —  To  London  early,  and  called  upon  Lady  Harcourt,  with 
whom  was  Lord  Spencer,  a  worthy,  ponderous  man,  who  complained  of 
the  calls  made  on  him  at  the  Admiralty  from  all  parts  of  the  Empire. 

"  Lady  Lytton  sends  me  a  letter  she  received  two  months  ago  from 
Sir  Henry  Loch  (the  High  Commissioner  at  the  Cape)  giving  his  view 
of  the  coming  Matabele  difficulty.  '  It  began,'  he  said,  '  by  Lobengula, 


1893]  The  Matabele  War  115 

who  has  not  abandoned  his  rights  over  the  Mashonas,  sending  a  regi- 
ment to  collect  taxes,  kill  the  people,  and  take  cattle.'  They  did  so 
to  some  extent  in  Fort  Victoria;  then  Dr.  Jameson  ordered  a  small 
mounted  force  to  charge  —  when  two  chiefs  and  thirty  Matabeles  were 
killed.  '  The  situation/  he  says,  '  is  somewhat  complicated,  for  while 
the  Company  have  administrative  authority  over  Mashonaland,  they 
are  still,  as  regards  political  matters,  under  my  control,  and,  moreover, 
the  country  under  my  direct  administration  must  be  affected  by  what 
the  Company  may  do.  Probably  the  Protectorate  would  be  the  first  to 
be  attacked  by  Lobengula,  should  there  be  war.  I  have  some  strong 
positions  and  a  powerful  police  force  supported,  if  necessary,  by  native 
levies,  but  still  not  strong  enough  to  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's 
country  and  force  a  battle  away  from  supports.  The  danger  is  the 
Company,  as  soon  as  they  are  a  little  better  prepared,  may  bring  about 
fighting,  as  they  can't  stand  long  armed  and  waiting  for  events  with  the 
possible  view  of  committing  H.M.'s  Government  in  their  quarrel.  So 
I  am  obliged  to  watch  both  friend  and  enemy,  and  if  fighting  once 
begins,  the  conduct  of  it  will  fall  entirely  upon  me,  while  if  I  do  any- 
thing the  Company  can  lay  hold  of  as  causing  them  commercial  loss, 
either  by  checking  their  fighting  or  by  encouraging  them  to  do  so,  that 
will  enable  them  to  say  to  Her  Majesty's  Government:  "  If  it  had  not 
been  for  the  action  of  the  High  Commissioner  we  should  not  have 
incurred  these  losses,  and  they  might  in  consequence  endeavour  to 
obtain  compensation  for  these  alleged  losses  out  of  the  Government."  : 

"  This  is  a  good  example  of  the  way  in  which  these  Colonial  wars 
are  begun. 

"  gth  Nov. —  To  Westminster  with  intent  to  see  Labouchere,  who  is 
bringing  on  the  Matabele  case  in  Parliament  to-day,  but  he  was  out. 

"Then  to  lunch  by  invitation  of  Loulou  at  n,  Downing  Street. 
Sir  William  was  there  looking,  I  thought,  older  and  less  healthy  than 
when  I  saw  him  last,  in  less  good  spirits,  too,  than  is  his  wont,  but  he 
told  us  some  good  stories  as  the  meal  went  on,  the  other  guests  being 
Mildmay  and  his  wife,  a  sister  of  Lady  Harcourt.  When  alone  with 
me  afterwards  in  his  official  room  he  began  complaining  of  the  brutality 
of  the  British  public,  which  insisted  upon  the  slaughter  of  the  Matabeles 
to  procure  itself  markets  for  its  goods.  'It  used,'  he  said,  'to  be 
slaughter  for  the  glory  of  the  thing,  but  they  have  given  that  up  now, 
now- it  is  slaughter  for  trade.'  I  asked:  'But  why  do  you  do  it?' 
'  Oh,'  he  said,  '  we  are  all  burglars  now.'  I  said :  '  If  you  will  allow  me 
to  say  it,  you  are  in  the  position  of  a  bishop  who  burgles  a  church. 
Why  do  you  not  disapprove?'  'Bishops,'  he  said,  'are  always  the 
first  to  lay  their  hands  on  property  when  they  can  do  it.  I  remember 
Bright  telling  me  that  he  never  knew  a  bishop  express  disapproval  of 
a  war  but  once,  and  that  was  a  war  to  put  down  the  slave  trade.'  7. — 


n6  Har court  on  Colonial  Wars 

'  You  complain  of  public  opinion,  but  you  let  the  official  press,  "  The 
Daily  News  "  and  the  rest,  either  preach  up  these  wars  or  sit  on  silent 
till  it  is  too  late.'  He. — '  The  papers  are  in  the  hands  of  the  financiers.' 
I  fancy  he  has  done  what  he  could  to  stop  the  raid  on  the  Matabeles, 
but  that  Rosebery  and  the  commercial  Jingoes  in  the  Cabinet  have  been 
too  strong  for  him.  I  asked  him  whether  they  were  going  to  do  any- 
thing in  the  direction  of  evacuating  Egypt.  He  said :  '  No,  nothing  at 
all.  The  young  Khedive  has  behaved  like  an  ass.  He  insisted  upon 
going  to  Constantinople,  to  get  the  Sultan  to  take  up  his  case  against 
us,  and  the  French  Government,  too,  has  been  absurd.  We  shall  do 
nothing.'  I  said,  '  I  do  'not  see  that  these  are  reasons.  I  hold  to  my 
opinion  that  we  shall  get  into  trouble  yet  about  Egypt.'  I  asked  him 
finally  whether  Cromer  was  going  to  stay  on  at  Cairo.  He  said,  '  Yes, 
for  anything  I  know  to  the  contrary.'  Then  he  relapsed  into  his  cigar 
and  I  went  into  the  inner  room  to  talk  with  Loulou  about  Harry  Cust's 
marriage. 

"  loth  Nov. —  There  has  been  a  better  debate  upon  the  Matabele 
case  in  Parliament  than  I  expected,  though  the  Irish  were  dumb  and 
the  Government  justified  their  Matabele  slaughter.  Gladstone  sur- 
passed himself  in  the  use  of  his  double  tongue.  He  is  a  shameless  old 
hypocrite  as  the  world  has  ever  seen.  I  have  determined  to  oppose  him 
what  little  I  can  at  the  next  elections.  The  spectacle  of  Gladstone, 
Morley,  and  the  Irish  members  supporting  this  anti-human  policy  in 
Africa  is  enough  to  make  dynamiters  of  us  all. 

"  Baron  de  Nolde  came  again  in  the  evening  with  his  cousin,  Count 
de  Kreutz.  They  are  projecting  a  new  journey  in  Central  Africa,  to 
start  from  Zanzibar  and  go  to  Khartoum.  On  their  last  journey  (in 
Arabia)  they  took  with  them  300  bottles  of  Champagne,  100  of  Madeira, 
and  100  of  brandy,  and  drank  them  all  their  two  selves. 

"  I  have  written  to  Labouchere  offering  to  help  him,  if  I  can,  about 
South  Africa. 

"  i$th  Nov. —  Drove  over  to  see  Fred'k  Locker  at  Rowfant,  and 
wish  him  good-bye.  He  and  Evelyn  are  the  only  two  friends  left  me 
in  Sussex.  Our  leave-taking  was  not  a  little  pathetic  for  this  reason. 

"  i6th  Nov. —  To  London,  and  lunched  at  Hammersmith.  Morris 
full  of  the  coal  war,  and  the  proposed  settlement  of  it  by  Rosebery. 
He  said  the  miners  had  gone  the  wrong  way  to  work  by  throwing 
themselves  out  of  employment  and  starving.  They  ought  to  have  re- 
fused to  work  and  gone  to  the  workhouse.  This  would  have  thrown 
the  whole  cost  of  the  war  on  the  masters,  '  but,'  he  said,  '  they  have 
an  idea  of  honour  in  the  matter,  which  I  suppose  had  to  be  reckoned 
with.'  All  I  see  in  it  is  the  strengthening  of  Rosebery's  position,  and 
with  it  the  final  disappearance  of  the  ideas  of  1880.  Evelyn  has  writ- 
ten to  the  Committee  of  the  Irish  National  League  at  Deptford,  to  say 


1893]'  The  Government  Afraid  of  Rhodes  117 

that  he  can  no  longer  support  Gladstone  at  the  elections.  I  have  been 
writing  to  Redmond,  but  doubt  if  I  shall  send  my  letter.  Dined  with 
Lady  Gregory." 

It  was,  I  think,  about  this  time  that  I  severed  my  connection  with 
the  Arbitration  and  Peace  Society,  stating  as  my  reason  for  doing  so 
that  I  found  the  ideas  of  the  Society  would  be  of  no  profit  if  realized 
to  the  backward  races  of  mankind,  or  to  prevent  wars  by  white  men 
against  them,  whereas  a  general  war  in  Europe  might  possibly  give  them 
a  time  of  peace  on  the  principle  that  when  thieves  fall  out  honest  men 
come  by  their  own.  "  There  is  talk  of  Philip  Currie  going  as  Ambas- 
sador to  Constantinople." 

"  2^th  Nov. —  My  last  visit  before  leaving  London  for  the  winter 
was  to  Frederic  Harrison,  whom  I  found  preparing  a  lecture  he  is  to 
deliver  to-night.  He  was  glad,  however,  to  see  me,  and  I  had  half  an 
hour's  talk  with  him.  We  discussed  the  Matabele  case,  on  which  we  are 
in  accord,  though  neither  of  us  having  special  knowledge  we  are  unable 
to  take  action,  nor  does  he  propose  to  do  so,  considering  that  Labouchere 
has  dealt  with  it  as  well  as  it  can  be  dealt  with.  '  The  Government  is 
afraid  of  Rhodes,'  is  the  whole  history  of  the  case.  We  then  talked 
about  Egypt,  and  I  told  him  of  my  two  conversations  with  Harcourt  in 
May  and  again  the  other  day.  He  told  me  that  as  late  as  June,  Morley 
had  told  him  that  he  and  Gladstone  and  Asquith  and  Mundella,  and 
Lefevre  were  of  one  mind  for  evacuation,  and  that  he,  Morley,  had 
declared  that  he  intended  to  have  it  out  with  Rosebery,  and  that  if  a 
contrary  policy  was  persisted  in  one  or  other  would  have  to  leave  the 
Cabinet.  I  gave  him  my  opinion  of  the  gravity  of  the  Franco-Russian 
Alliance,  of  the  ferment  there  was  in  India  shown  by  the  Anti  Cow- 
killing  league,  and  of  the  position  at  Cairo. 

"  He  asked  me  if  I  knew  anything  of  the  reasons  why  Sir  Henry 
Norman  had  refused  the  Viceroyalty  of  India  after  accepting  it,  and 
he  told  me  a  curious  story  of  how  Norman  had  come  to  him  during  the 
Afghan  campaign,  and  while  he  was  a  member  of  the  Indian  Council, 
and  had  given  him  the  most  intimate  and  full  information  of  all  that 
was  going  on,  and  how  he  had  come  over  and  over  again  with  details 
and  documents  avowedly  to  help  him,  Harrison,  in  his  attack  on  the 
Indian  Government.  Norman's  appointment  to  the  Viceroyalty  would 
seem  to  be  a  late  reward  by  Gladstone  for  the  political  service  which  was 
no  doubt  largely  instrumental  in  bringing  about  Disraeli's  overthrow 
at  the  elections  of  1880.  I  have  agreed  to  let  Harrison  know  how 
things  stand  in  Egypt  when  I  get  there.  I  shall  also  write  an  article 
for  the  '  Nineteenth  Century.' 

"  We  left  in  the  evening  for  Brindisi." 

My  winter  in  Egypt  of  1893-94  was  made  noteworthy  by  a  new 
political  crisis,  and  a  new  battle  between  the  Khedive  and  Lord  Cromer, 


u8  Happiness  at'Sheykh  Obeyd  [1893 

in  which  Kitchener  played  a  first  prominent  part,  what  is  known  as  the 
"  Frontier  Incident."  Here  again,  as  in  the  former  instance,  though 
an  accessory  after  the  fact  I  was  not  an  accomplice,  my  advice  being 
taken  about  it  by  the  Khedive  when  it  was  no  longer  of  any  use  to  him. 
The  entries  in  my  diary  show  how  greatly  the  facts  of  the  case  differ 
from  those  recorded  in  the  Blue  Books,  and  are  therefore  of  interest. 

"  2$>th  Nov. —  On  board  the  Hydaspes.  The  only  fellow  pas- 
sengers I  have  made  acquaintance  with  are  Lady  Waterford  and  Sir 
John  Stokes,  the  latter  on  his  way  to  the  Suez  Canal  of  which  he  is 
Director,  to  open  a  new  railroad  from  Port  Said  to  Ismailia*  With 
Stokes  I  have  had  much  talk  about  the  Suez  Canal,  British  trade  and 
the  Mediterranean  route  in  time  of  war.  He  tells  me  three-quarters 
of  the  tonnage  passing  through  the  Canal  is  British,  of  which  perhaps 
half  is  for  English  ports,  the  rest  for  other  ports  in  Europe.  In  time 
of  war  with  France,  this  could  not  continue.  The  Red  Sea  was  quite 
safe,  but  the  whole  line  of  the  Mediterranean  would  be  blocked,  and 
this  would  continue  until  the  British  had  broken  up  the  enemy's  forces 
and  confined  them  to  their  ports,  then  convoys  could  be  arranged  and 
trade  resumed.  He  considers  that  it  would  require  sixty  or  seventy 
more  men-of-war  than  we  have  at  present  to  effect  this  as  against  the 
French  navy.  He  is  for  making  the  increase,  not  for  abandoning  the 
control  of  the  Mediterranean.  He  considers  that  the  Canal  will  event- 
ually be  internationalized,  though  by  the  terms  of  the  concession  it  will 
revert  to  Egypt  in  1959,  but  '  nobody  looks  so  far  as  that  ahead.' 
Stokes  reminded  me  that  our  first  acquaintance  dates  from  the  time  of 
Cave's  Mission  in  1875,  of  which  he  was  a  member.  He  is  a 
stolid  old  fellow  of  the  out-of-date  military  type,  being  a  General  in 
the  army. 

"  $th  Dec. —  My  first  twenty-four  hours  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  were  a 
dream  of  light-hearted  happiness,  such  as  I  do  not  remember  since  a 
child ;  it  was  a  physical  feeling  of  perfect  pleasure,  perfect  health,  and 
perfect  powers  of  enjoyment  without  the  least  shadow  of  annoyance. 
We  arrived  at  Alexandria  on  the  ist  of  December  in  time  to  catch  the 
9  o'clock  train  to  Cairo,  and  then  straight  on  home  in  brilliant  spark- 
ling weather  with  just  a  little  freshness  in  the  North  wind,  the  -ther- 
mometer at  72.  Everything  on  the  way  was  a  pleasure,  even  the  new 
houses  built  at  Koubbah,  and  our  little  railway  station  at  Ezbet  el 
Nakl,  lovely  and  familiar  in  its  palm  grove.  Inside  the  garden  all  was 
paradise.  No  misadventure  this  year  of  any  kind,  but  a  blooming  look 
of  extravagant  growth,  trees,  crops,  and  flowers,  the  house  so  shut  in 
with  green  we  can  hardly  any  longer  get  a  glimpse  out  into  the  desert, 
hardly  even  from  the  house  top.  Cows  prosperous,  mares  in  foal, 
every  servant  happy.  Each  year  decides  me  more  to  spend  the  rem- 
nant of  my  days  in  the  East,  where  old  age  is  respected,  and  its  repose 


1893]  The  Khedive's  Mistakes  Begin  119 

respectable.  Of  news  we  have  as  yet  heard  little;  poor  Ahmed  Bey 
Sennari  (a  neighbour)  is  dead;  old  Eid  Diab,  too,  gathered  to  his 
fathers,  and  Prince  Ibrahim,  our  neighbour  on  the  other  side,  gone  in 
an  apoplectic  fit,  or  as  the  f  ellahin  round  here  say,  '  poisoned '  by  his 
uncle  Ismail,  whose  daughter  he  recently  married,  but  left  behind  at 
Constantinople.  '  Ismail,  I  suppose,  was  angry,'  I  suggested.  '  Oh  no/ 
they  said,  '  it  was  on  account  of  the  inheritance,  three  twenty- fourths 
of  which  will  have  come  to  her.  Ismail  has  poisoned  very  many  people 
for  their  money  ' —  such  is  the  talk. 

"  &th  Dec. —  Visitors.  Mahmud  Bey  from  Menoufieh,  an  old  fox, 
formerly  Arabist,  his  object  to  borrow  £30,  which  he  did  not  get.  He 
tells  me  Riaz  and  Mukhtar  are  now  working  harmoniously  with  Cromer. 

Selim  Bey  Faraj,  another  neighbour,  who  has  let  his  land  at  £5  the 
feddan,  etc.,  etc. 

"  gth  Dec. —  Mohammed  Moelhi  called.  He  tells  me  the  Khedive's 
reception  at  Constantinople  was  as  bad  as  could  be.  He  is  now  angry 
with  the  Sultan,  and  angry  with  Mukhtar,  who  persuaded  him 
to  go  there;  has  quarrelled  with  Tigrane  on  a  personal  mat- 
ter; cannot  get  Riaz  to  go  fairly  with  him.  Riaz  lets  things 
slide  as  when  last  in  office,  giving  in  to  Cromer  in  all  im- 
portant matters,  only  from  time  to  time  making  show  of  opposition. 
Nevertheless  the  English  don't  like  him,  and  want  to  get  rid  of  him ;  so, 
he  says,  would  the  Khedive,  too,  but  he  has  nobody  but  Mazlum  to  put 
in  his  place.  The  Khedive  wished  the  Legislative  Council  to  oppose 
the  estimate  for  the  extra  regiments  of  Occupation  this  year,  but  Riaz 
has  yielded  the  point  and  nothing  will  be  done.  Thus  Abbas  every  day 
is  losing  prestige  in  the  country,  and  the  trimmers  are  making  their 
peace  with  Cromer. 

"  The  journey  to  Constantinople  was  a  fatal  move.  Some  strong 
influence  must  have  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  Sultan,  German  prob- 
ably, and  Abdul  Hamid  was  partly  frightened,  partly  bought,  Moham- 
med thinks,  by  financial  promises.  Edgar  Vincent  was  probably  the 
medium  of  these.  The  Khedive  has  no  option  now  but  to  keep  quiet, 
maintaining  himself  as  he  can  at  the  head  of  the  National  party  and 
waiting  his  opportunity.  It  would  be  rash  for  him  to  take  up  the  strong 
position  he  held  in  the  spring  now  that  he  can  no  longer  count  on  the 
Sultan.  The  Sultan  was  always  the  dangerous  card  in  his  hand. 

"  i5//t  Dec. —  Osman  Ghaleb  and  Mohammed  Moelhi  to  breakfast. 
Osman  had  an  interview  with  Gladstone  in  England  this  autumn  or 
summer.  Gladstone  asked  him  two  questions:  whether  the  English 
officials  in  Egypt  were  working  hard  and  whether  the  late  Khedive 
Tewfik  was  regretted.  Osman's  answer  to  the  second  question  was 
that  '  Death  was  always  regretted,  but  the  Egyptians  were  consoled  by 
having  his  son  Abbas.'  Gladstone  hoped  that  Abbas  would  become 


I2O  Tigrane  on  the  Khedive  [1893 

friendly  to  England  as  his  father  had  been.  Gladstone  did  not  ask 
whether  the  Egyptians  wished  the  Occupation  to  be  discontinued. 

"  Colbeck,  director  of  the  Bank  of  Egypt,  on  whom  I  called,  i5th 
December,  was  quite  as  pessimistic  on  the  English  side.  He  said  our 
position  at  Cairo  was  becoming  daily  more  ridiculous.  Cromer  could 
get  none  of  his  reforms  carried  through ;  he  was  opposed  constantly  by 
the  Ministry;  the  Khedive  was  irreconcilable.  Much  as  he  admired 
Cromer  he  thought  a  change  was  necessary,  as  Cromer  was  without 
power.  Cromer  was  willing  to  take  an  Embassy,  and  wanted  Portal 
named  in  his  place,  but  Portal  was  not  clever  enough,  etc.,  etc.  He 
had  heard  nothing  of  a  split  between  Tigrane  and  the  Khedive  or  with 
Riaz. 

"  iyth  Dec. —  With  Anne  and  Judith  to  call  on  Princesse  Helene 
and  her  brother,  the  Due  d'Orleans,  at  Shepherd's.  The  Duke  is  a 
fresh-faced,  blond  young  man,  good  humoured,  and  good  mannered. 
He  has  travelled  over  much  wild  country,  and  I  talked  to  him  of  his 
experiences,  especially  in  Somaliland,  finding  him  sympathetic  as  to 
the  advantages  of  uncivilized  life  and  a  contempt  of  Europe.  He  and 
his  sister  are  on  very  pleasant  terms  together.  On  their  return  from  up 
the  Nile  in  March  they  will  come  and  see  us  at  Sheykh  Obeyd. 

"  22nd  Dec. —  To  Cairo  and  lunched  with  Tigrane.  I  found  him 
very  outspoken.  He  assured  me  that  neither  the  Khedive  nor  anyone 
else  at  Cairo  held  me  responsible  for  the  use  made  of  the  Khedive's 
name  in  connection  with  my  '  Nineteenth  Century '  article  of  last  sum- 
mer, and  he  hoped  I  would  write  another.  As  to  the  Khedive's  visit 
to  Constantinople,  he  declared  it  had  not  been  otherwise  than  a  success, 
that  precisely  the  same  ceremonial  had  been  observed  towards  Abbas 
as  formerly  towards  Ismail,  that  the  Khedive  had  dined  several  times 
with  the  Sultan,  who  had  been  most  kind  to  him.  I  asked  him  about 
the  Khedive's  proposed  visit  to  England,  but  he  told  me  nothing  was 
yet  settled,  and  I  strongly  advised  that  the  Khedive  should  not  go,  at 
least  as  long  as  Cromer  was  here,  for  he  would  only  be  paraded  as  a 
tame  bear,  and  the  thing  be  counted  as  a  triumph  for  English  policy. 
If  he  insisted  upon  going  he  should  at  least  go  straight  from  Paris, 
where  he  would  be  feted,  then  possibly  English  people  would  be  polite 
to  him,  but  it  was  a  risk.  He  denied  there  having  been  any  split 
between  him  and  the  Khedive ;  Riaz  and  he  were  on  the  best  of  terms. 
We  talked  very  openly  about  the  prospects  of  evacuation,  and  I  told 
him  that  in  my  opinion  it  had  been  mainly  determined  by  the  larger 
question  of  peace  and  war  with  France,  and  the  military  advisability  or 
otherwise  of  having  a  garrison  in  a  disaffected  Egypt.  Tigrane  is  a 
clever  man  and  a  good  talker,  modest  withal. 

"26th  Dec. —  One  Ibrahim  Shafei  came  with  a  complaint  arising 
out  of  the  Greek  drink-shop  established  in  the  village  of  Merj.  He  was 


1893]  Drink  Shops  in  the  Villages  121 

watering  his  land  near  the  railway  station,  and  had  to  construct  a 
raised  channel  for  the  water  across  the  footpath  and  the  Greek  objected 
to  this,  as  hindering  access  to  his  shop,  though  the  land  did  not  belong 
to  him  and  the  fellah  had  a  right  to  the  waterway.  The  Greek  cut  the 
channel,  the  fellah  protested,  the  Greek  struck  the  fellah  with  a  stick, 
the  fellah  took  the  stick  from  the  Greek,  then  the  Greek  ran  into  his 
shop  and  got  out  a  gun  which  he  pointed  at  the  fellah,  and  the  fellah 
ran  away  but  came  back  ten  minutes  later  to  reconstruct  his  channel, 
then  the  Greek  fired  at  him,  fired  and  struck  him,  the  fellah  showed 
me  his  legs  and  I  found  twenty-two  shot  marks  in  them,  he  had  been 
three  weeks  in  hospital  and  was  still  weak.  The  Greek,  when  arrested, 
avowed  the  deed,  but  nevertheless,  after  four  days'  detention,  was  let 
out  on  bail,  and  is  back  at  his  shop. 

"  Nearly  every  day  this  month  I  have  seen  foxes  in  the  garden  when 
I  have  ridden  out  before  sunrise.  There  are  three  which  I  know  by 
sight,  and  old  dog-fox,  a  vixen,  and  a  year-old  cub.  They  are  very 
tame,  and  I  have  watched  them  sometimes  within  a  few  yards  of  me  for 
ten  minutes  at  a  time.  It  is  pretty  to  see  them  play  and  roll  each  other 
over.  This  month  is  the  breeding  season  and  they  are  barking  very 
constantly  in  the  garden  (it  is  a  peculiarity  of  a  fox's  bark  that 
whereas  nearly  all  other  wild  cries  seem  to  be  nearer  than  they  really ' 
are,  that  of  the  fox  sounds  at  a  distance  even  when  close  by).  I  have 
also  seen  one  of  the  large  cats  called  by  Hassan  Hashem,  kutt  berri 
(desert  cat).  It  is  exactly  like  a  small  lioness,  but  higher  on  the  leg, 
the  ears  tipped  with  black  and  the  tail  with  three  black  rings,  the  quar- 
ters rather  drooping.  It  is  very  powerfully  built.  The  Arabs  eat  these 
cats  when  they  can  catch  them  and  say  they  are  very  fat  and  good  meat. 

"  2jth  Dec. —  To  Cairo  to  see  Riaz,  who  had  asked  me  to  come  to 
him.  I  found  the  old  man  very  affectionate  and  pleased  to  see  me. 
He  talked  in  just  the  same  strain  as  last  year  about  Cromer  and  the 
ill  faith  of  the  English  government  and  Mr.  Gladstone. 

"  About  the  Khedive's  visit  to  Constantinople,  he  told  me  most  posi- 
tively first  that  it  had  been  decided  before  His  Highness  went,  between 
him  and  his  ministers,  that  he  should  not  make  any  political  proposals 
to  the  Sultan  —  he  said,  '  I  will  swear  this  to  you  on  the  Koran.' 
Secondly,  that  in  fact  His  Highness  had  not  made  any,  and  that  his 
talk  with  the  palace  officials  had  been  confined  to  his  personal  complaint 
of  Lord  Cromer's  rudeness.  Lastly,  that  the  Sultan  had  been  more 
than  kind  to  him  and  had  treated  him  more  honourably  than  a  Viceroy 
of  Egypt  had  ever  been  treated,  so  that  the  Khedive  was  perfectly  sat- 
isfied with  all.  I  asked  him  whether  the  Sultan  might  not  have  been 
won  over  to  the  English  policy  in  Egypt,  and  his  face  put  on  the  most 
expressively  incredulous  smile.  '  You  know,'  he  said,  '  as  well  as  I 
do  that  even  if  in  his  heart  he  had  such  a  thought  he  would  not  dare 


122  A  Talk  with  Riaz  Pasha  [1893 

express  it.'     He  told  me,  too,  of  an  attempt  Cromer  had  made  to  impose 
an  English  doctor  on  the  Khedive's  party,  which  they  had  refused. 

"  We  talked  next  about  the  action  of  the  Legislative  Council  at 
Cairo  which  has  refused  to  approve  the  expenses  this  year  of  the 
English  Occupation,  besides  making  a  number  of  other  objections, 
almost  all  to  my  mind  very  sensible  ones.  Riaz  is  clearly  in  sympathy 
with  them,  but  he  has  rather  weakly  followed  English  dictation  in  re- 
jecting most  of  them.  He  is  doing,  however,  perhaps  as  much  as  is 
prudent  in  his  opposition  to  Cromer.  '  At  least,'  he  said,  '  we  have  lost 
no  ground  this  year,  if  we  have  not  gained  as  much  as  we  wished.' 

"  About  the  Merj  case,  which  I  set  before  him,  he  amused  me  im- 
mensely by  saying  in  answer  to  my  remark  that  the  Greek  would  end 
by  killing  someone  outright,  '  Would  it  not  be  better  if  they  killed  /n'w?  ' 
He  promised  me  to  see  justice  done,  and  I  am  sure  it  will  not  be  for 
want  of  his  goodwill  if  nothing  results,  but  Riaz  is  too  old  not  to  be 
timid  in  action.  He  introduced  his  son  Mahmud  to  me,  a  little  round 
Circassian  whom  he  has  made  his  under  secretary  of  state  [a  piece 
of  nepotism  which  was  taken  hold  of  effectively  by  Cromer,  as  the 
young  man  was  quite  incapable  and  was  guilty  of  many  stupidities]. 
He  was  most  cordial  in  wanting  to  see  me  again.  Riaz  has  a  wonder- 
ful charm  of  manner,  inspiring  one  with  affection  as  well  as  respect, 
badly  as  he  behaved  in  1882.  For  this  he  is  contrite  now. 

"  3uf  Dec. —  In  answer  to  a  question  by  Labouchere,  Gladstone  has 
said  in  Parliament  that  negotiations  for  evacuating  Egypt  must  be 
entered  into,  if  at  all,  with  the  Sultan,  not  with  the  Khedive. 

"  Mohammed  Abdu  lunched  with  us  on  Friday.  He  is  very  well 
satisfied  with  the  way  things  are  going  here;  says  that  Riaz  is  working 
well  with  the  Khedive,  highly  approves  the  action  of  the  Legislative 
Council,  but  as  to  Constantinople,  says  the  Sultan  is  mad  and  there  is 
no  doing  anything  with  him.  Talking  about  the  Azhar  University 
he  tells  me  there  is  only  one  of  the  Sheykhs  there  fit  to  be  made  Sheykh 
El  Azhar  on  a  Liberal  footing,  namely,  Hassan  el  Naawi. 

"  2nd  fan.  1894. —  My  audience  of  the  Khedive.  He  received  me 
with  great  cordiality,  excusing  himself  for  the  mistake  about  last 
week's  audience,  and  assuring  me  that  he  was  not  in  the  smallest 
degree  displeased  at  what  had  happened  last  year,  when  Knowles  an- 
nounced my  article  as  authorized  by  him.  I  said,  '  After  all  it  did 
good ' ;  and  he  chuckled  at  the  recollection.  I  found  him  just  as  frank 
and  plain-spoken  as  last  year,  but  more  of  a  man.  He  is  much  sun- 
burnt and  looks  in  perfect  health.  He  answered  all  my  questions  freely 
and  without  hesitation. 

"  The  first  was  about  Constantinople.  I  asked  him  whether  it  was 
true  that  he  had  gone  there  with  the  intention  of  starting  an  active 
anti-English  campaign?  Abbas.  'There  is  no  truth  in  it.  I  was 


1894]  An  Audience  with  the  Khedive  123 

obliged  to  go,  as  it  was  my  duty  to  the  Sultan,  but  from  first  to 
last  we  did  not  speak  a  word  of  politics.'  I.  '  Then  it  is  not  true  that 
Your  Highness  asked  for  Turkish  troops?'  Abbas.  'The  whole 
thing  is  nonsense.  It  was  agreed  beforehand  that  I  should  say  nothing 
of  these  things,  and  nothing  at  all  was  said.'  /.  *  But  Your  Highness 
was  satisfied  with  the  general  reception?'  Abbas.  'Most  satisfied. 
The  Sultan  showed  me  all  possible  kindness.  But  the  question  of 
evacuation  was  not  touched  on,  nor,  indeed,  any  international  politics. 
I  authorize  you  to  repeat  this  on  my  part.' 

"  I  told  him  that  I  had  seen  Sir  William  Harcourt,  and  what  he  had 
said  to  me  about  the  Khedive's  having  gone  to  Constantinople  to  raise 
up  the  Sultan  against  us.  He  begged  me  to  contradict  this,  as  nothing 
of  the  sort  had  taken  place.  I  then  asked  about  his  intended  visit  to 
England.  He  said  he  was  thinking  of  it  in  June.  I  urged  him  to 
decide  on  nothing  in  a  hurry,  as  I  should  be  sorry  to  see  him  go  there 
without  being  certain  of  being  received  with  all  the  honour  due  to  his 
position.  I  feared  the  visit  might  be  misinterpreted  and  made  use  of 
against  him  in  the  Press.  He  promised  to  think  it  over  well  before 
deciding.  About  Riaz  he  said  he  was  on  the  best  of  terms  with  him, 
that  he  was  quite  satisfied  of  the  sincerity  of  his  opposition  to  Lord 
Cromer  and  that  all  was  going  on  capitally.  He  was  immensely  pleased 
at  the  conduct  of  the  Legislative  Council,  but  told  me  he  had  had  great 
difficulty  in  keeping  up  their  courage.  They  were  so  timid.  One  mem- 
ber, Gait  Bey  Mustafa,  had  come  one  day  to  the  Council  in  a  great 
state  of  mind  because  he  had  been  the  day  before  to  Kitchener  to  ask 
that  his  son  might  be  received  into  the  military  school,  and  Kitchener 
had  been  very  rude  to  him,  asking  him  whether  he  was  not  one  of  those 
who  were  wanting  to  cut  down  the  army  estimates,  and  had  shown  him 
the  door.  This  had  frightened  others,  and  they  had  all  come  to  him, 
and  he  had  made  them  a  little  speech  on  their  duty  as  independent 
patriots,  which  had  given  them  heart  again. 

"  He  then  told  me  the  story  of  the  Sheykh  el  Bekri.  He  and  the  Sheykh 
had  been  great  friends  as  boys,  and  he  had  had  a  high  opinion  of  him, 
but  latterly  the  Sheykh  had  had  his  head  turned  by  the  desire  to  play 
a  great  political  part.  He  had  gone  about  among  the  foreign  consuls 
repeating  this  thing  and  that.  On  one  occasion  Lord  Cromer  had 
quoted  something  the  Sheykh  had  told  him  which  should  not  have  been 
told,  and  he  had  sent  for  him  and  asked  explanations,  and  advised  him 
to  keep  quiet,  but  he  would  not  be  advised.  Complaints  had  also  been 
made  to  him  as  to  the  Sheykh  having  withheld  the  payment  of  certain 
sums  passing  through  his  hands,  so  that  he  had  sent  for  the  Azhar 
Sheykhs  and  warned  them  to  be  cautious  with  Sheykh  el  Bekri,  and 
the  Sheykhs  had  told  Sheykh  el  Bekri  what  he  had  recommended.  Th-'s 
had  made  further  mischief.  Finally,  on  the  publication  in  the  '  Bos- 


124  The  Khedive  and  Cromer 

phore '  about  the  two  members  of  the  Council  having  been  to  Lord 
Cromer,  the  Sheykh  had  gone  to  Reverseaux,  French  Minister  Resident 
at  Cairo.  I  had  insisted  upon  its  being  contradicted,  or  otherwise  '  he 
would  go  over  to  the  English.'  This  Reverseaux  had  repeated  to  him, 
the  Khedive  —  and  he  had  given  Bekri  a  strong  piece  of  his  mind 
about  his  lack  of  patriotism.  I  told  the  Khedive  that  I  regretted  the 
disagreement,  as  I  had  had  a  high  opinion  of  Sheykh  el  Bekri's  value 
both  for  intelligence  and  courage.  But  he  said  he  himself  was  disap- 
pointed in  him,  and  things  were  so. 

"Of  Lord  Cromer  he  spoke  with  the  same  sort  of  boyish  fun  as 
last  year.  '  When  Lord  Cromer  came  back  from  England,'  he  said, 
'  he  began  to  talk  to  me  once  more  about  the  details  of  Government, 
but  I  reminded  him  that  last  time  we  had  talked  of  these  things  it  was 
I  who  wanted  to  go  into  details,  and  he  who  found  that  "  it  was  not 
my  business  to  trouble  myself  about  them."  Since  then  we  only  talk 
about  the  rain  and  the  fine  weather.  He  comes  to  see  me,  but  we  never 
talk  politics.'  He  asked  me  whether  I  had  been  to  see  Cromer,  and  I 
told  him  '  No,'  as  I  did  not  think  he  had  behaved  well  to  His  Highness, 
and  I  was  unwilling,  being  opposed  to  him,  to  frequent  his  house. 
This  pleased  him  very  much.  He  came  with  me  to  the  door,  and  on 
going  out  I  asked  him  whether  I  might  publish  what  he  had  told  me, 
and  he  said  '  Certainly  —  these  are  the  facts  and  my  opinion,  and  there 
•i  no  reason  why  they  should  not  be  made  known.'  I  am  immensely 
impressed  with  the  keenness  of  his  intelligence,  and  his  ready  power  of 
expressing  himself,  also  with  his  frankness  and  directness.  There  was 
no  beating  at  all  about  the  bush,  nor  use  of  those  vague  generalities 
so  common  with  Eastern  statesmen. 

"  The  same  day  I  went  to  the  Sheykh  el  Bekri,  who  gave  me  his 
own  account  of  what  had  happened,  and  on  gth  January  to  Tigrane, 
who  told  me  more  details  of  the  Khedive's  reception  at  Constantinople. 
It  had  been  most  cordial,  he  said.  He  was  himself  in  the  Khedive's 
suite  on  the  occasion,  as  he  had  been  many  years  before  with  Ismail,  and 
the  ceremonial  was  greater  this  time,  greater  than  for  Mohammed  AH 
or  any  of  the  Viceroys.  The  Sultan  saw  Abbas  frequently  alone.  He 
does  not  think  they  talked  politics  except  perhaps,  the  first  time,  all 
that  was  done  by  Mukhtar.  I  asked  him  if  he  had  any  doubt  of  the 
Sultan's  support  if  things  came  to  a  pinch.  He  said  he  had  not,  the 
only  thing  that  could  tempt  the  Sultan  to  intervene  against  Abbas  would 
be  if  it  were  proposed  to  turn  Egypt  into  a  Vilayet  of  the  Empire,  but 
this  the  Powers  would  never  consent  to.  His  apprehension  was  not 
from  that  side;  what  he  fears  is  that  perhaps  the  British  Government 
may  intervene  against  the  Ministry  and  appoint  men  of  their  own  choice 
without  reference  to  the  Khedive.  We  talked  also  about  the  Legisla- 
tive Council  and  its  discussion  of  the  Budget,  and  he  told  me  amongst 


1894]  A  New  Coup  d'Etat  125 

other  things  that  both  Havas  and  Reuter's  Telegraph  Agencies  get 
£1,000  a  year  each  from  the  Egyptian  Government. 

"  In  a  letter  I  wrote  at  this  time  to  Sir  William  Harcourt,  I  gave 
him  an  account  of  how  things  were  going  in  Egypt.  '  The  ideas  of  the 
day/  I  wrote,  '  are  Liberal  and  modern.  The  action  of  the  Legislative 
Council  (in  discussing  the  Budget)  is  most  useful,  but  everything  that 
is  done  here  is  turned  to  the  native  disadvantage  by  the  English  officials, 
who  are  angry  at  having  lost  much  of  their  power  since  last  year.  It 
is  impossible  that  the  country  could  be  in  a  more  favourable  state  for 
evacuation,  but  I  suppose  you  will  not  do  it.'  And  so  in  truth  it  was, 
it  needed  a  new  quarrel  and  a  new  crisis  at  Cairo  to  prevent  what  these 
considered  the  danger  of  its  taking  place.  Lady  Gregory,  writing  to 
me  on  the  i6th  of  January,  said :  '  From  what  I  hear  the  Government 
in  England  are  most  anxious  to  get  out  of  Egypt,  and  might  make  a 
volte  face  at  any  moment.'  Ihis  was  the  danger  Cromer  and  the 
English  officials  at  Cairo  foresaw.  Gladstone  might  at  any  moment 
take  the  bit  between  his  teeth  and  keep  his  word.  It  will  here  be  seen 
how  the  crisis  was  engineered,  and  Cromer  got  his  way." 

I  was  absent  from  Cairo  on  a  desert  tour  when  the  clash  between 
Cromer  and  the  Khedive  took  place.  That  a  new  coup  d'  etat  was  in 
contemplation  by  the  former  had  already  begun  to  be  rumoured  is 
shown  by  an  entry  in  my  journal  of  January  21.  "  Mohammed  Abdu 
and  Mohammed  Moelhi  called.  Moelhi  declares  that  Riaz'  Ministry 
will  not  last,  that  Cromer  and  Reverseaux  have  come  together,  and 
that  they  mean  to  appoint  Nubar  in  his  place.  He  thinks  the  Khedive 
will  consent  to  this.  Tigrane  is  on  bad  terms  with  Nubar  and  will  not 
join.  It  will  be  practically  a  renewal  of  the  Dual  Control.  I  think 
there  is  probably  something  in  this,  though  I  doubt  the  Khedive's  con- 
senting." Two  days  later,  23rd  January,  we  started  on  our  journey, 
one  of  those  purely  desert  journeys  on  camels  in  the  Western  Desert, 
where  one  is  absolutely  cut  off  from  all  communication  with  the  civi- 
lized world,  as  much  so  as  if  one  were  in  a  different  planet,  nor  did 
we  return  till  the  4th  of  February.  It  was  a  pleasant  and  interesting 
tour  among  the  then  isolated  monasteries  of  the  Natron  Valley,  and 
in  the  great  uninhabited  wilderness  beyond  it.  It  was  Judith's  first 
experience  of  a  long  camel  ride,  and  we  had  with  us  Everard  Fielding 
who  was  spending  the  winter  in  Egypt,  and  the  weather  was  beautiful, 
and  all  went  well,  but  this  is  not  the  place  for  these  out  of  the  world 
adventures,  and  I  reserve  my  description  of  it  for  another  occasion. 
My  first  informant  about  what  had  happened  was  my  friend  Osman 
Bey  Ghaleb  who  looked  in  the  following  day,  and  gave  the  exciting 
news  of  what  is  known  in  official  Egyptian  history  as  "  The  Frontier 
Incident." 

To  make  this  understandable  it  must  be  explained  that  Kitchener, 


126  The  Frontier  Incident  [1894 

who  held  the  position  of  Sirdar  of  the  Egyptian  army,  was  already 
busying  himself  with  preparing  things  on  the  Soudanese  frontier  for  the 
advance  he  had  in  contemplation  beyond  Wady  Haifa  against  the 
Khalifa  (who  had  succeeded  on  the  Mahdi's  death  to  his  power  at  Om- 
durman),  by  endeavouring  to  obtain  the  alliance  of  the  various  tribal 
Sheykhs  in  Nubia  and  Upper  Egypt.  These  proceedings  were  veiled 
in  extreme  military  secrecy,  the  details  being  carefully  withheld  from 
the  Khedive,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Abbas  was  nominally  Com- 
mander in  Chief  of  his  own  Egyptian  army.  This  the  young  man 
resented,  among  other  British  encroachments  on  his  Vice-regal  power, 
and  it  was  a  matter  that  was  much  discussed  between  him  and  his  in- 
timates, some  of  whom  were  young  officers  who  encouraged  him  to 
assert  himself  as  a  reply  to  Cromer's  call  a  year  before  for  British 
reinforcements.  Cromer  on  his  side,  as  has  been  seen,  though  unwill- 
ing for  financial  reasons  to  make  any  new  move  in  the  direction  of  a 
Soudan  campaign,  kept  the  necessity  of  such  a  campaign  in  reserve  as 
a  useful  argument  for  deferring  the  evacuation  among  those  which  he 
brought  forward  when  the  possibility  of  withdrawing  our  troops  was 
under  discussion  with  the  home  Government.  It  will  be  understood 
by  this,  how  in  the  present  instance  he  had  a  double  reason  for  sup- 
porting Kitchener  in  his  not  originally  serious  dispute  with  the  Khedive, 
and  making  it  the  occasion  of  a  new  trial  of  strength  with  Abbas,  and 
a  new  change  of  Ministers. 

"  $th  Feb. —  Osman  Ghaleb  came  and  stopped  to  luncheon,  and  gave 
me  the  whole  history  of  what  had  happened  in  my  absence.  According 
to  him  the  Khedive,  while  making  a  tour  on  the  Upper  Nile,  was  deter- 
mined to  find  out  exactly  the  state  of  affairs  in  regard  to  the  Soudan, 
and  insisted  upon  being  shown  everything  and  seeing  everybody. 
Kitchener,  who  was  with  him,  and  had  heard  of  this  intention,  tried  to 
prevent  it,  and  to  keep  him  especially  away  from  visiting  the  prisons, 
where  a  number  of  political  persons  were  detained,  Sheykhs  of  tribes 
and  others  connected  with  the  Soudanese  hostilities.  But  the  Khedive 
insisted,  and  the  prisoners  appealed  to  him,  and  told  him  their  griev- 
ances, and  he  ordered  a  number  of  them  to  be  released.  It  has  been 
a  system  on  the  frontier  to  pay  subsidies  to  certain  Sheykhs  of  tribes 
(friendlies),  who  are  allowed  to  harry  the  others,  and  complaints  on 
this  head  were  made  to  Abbas.  Kitchener,  who  does  everything  up 
there  in  the  name  of  England,  being  unable  to  contest  the  Khedive's 
right  to  pardon,  ordered  the  pardoned  prisoners  to  be  released,  but  in 
Queen  Victoria's  name.  There  was  also  some  trouble  about  a  hospi- 
tal which  Kitchener  did  not  wish  his  Highness  to  see,  saying  there 
were  seventy  cases  of  smallpox  in  it,  but  the  Khedive  went  and  found 
there  were  but  sixty  patients  in  all,  and  no  smallpox  case. 

"  Again  on  the  frontier,  Abbas  insisted  on  receiving  certain  Sheykhs 


1894]  The  Khedive  Visits  the  Upper  Nile  127 

who  assured  him  he  could  travel  in  safety  anywhere  with  them,  even 
to  Khartoum,  while  Kitchener  objected  to  his  going  outside  the  lines, 
saying  there  was  danger.  But  the  Khedive  rode  out  with  the  Sheykhs 
notwithstanding, —  Kitchener  remaining  behind.  Lastly,  at  a  review 
the  2nd  battalion  of  a  black  regiment  officered  by  Englishmen  got  into 
disorder  while  marching  past.  Kitchener  said  it  was  through  the  fault 
of  the  band,  but  the  Khedive  said  they  had  marched  disgracefully.  At 
this  Kitchener  took  offence,  and  offered  to  resign,  but  the  Khedive  re- 
fused to  accept  his  resignation,  and  the  thing  was  explained  and  set- 
tled, and  it  was  agreed  that  nothing  further  should  be  said  about  it. 
Kitchener,  however,  made  use  of  the  incident  later  as  a  pretext  to  get 
the  Khedive  recalled  from  the  frontier,  and  telegraphed  to  Cromer,  who 
telegraphed  to  Rosebery,  who  telegraphed  to  Paris  and  St.  Petersburg 
to  say  that  he  must  deal  separately  with  the  case  (independently  of  the 
other  Consuls  General).  The  French  and  Russian  Governments  agreed 
to  this.  Pressure  was  then  put  on  Riaz,  who  telegraphed  to  the 
Khedive  to  return. 

"  The  conditions  imposed  by  Cromer  were  a  commendatory  order 
by  the  Khedive  to  the  troops ;  the  dismissal  of  Maher  Pasha,  whom 
Kitchener  accused  of  having  instigated  the  Khedive's  conduct,  and  as 
third  condition  that  the  English  officers  in  the  Khedive's  army  should 
have  the  right  to  be  tried  by  court  martial  in  England.  Abbas  is  said 
to  have  accepted  all  these  conditions.  If  it  is  true  that  he  was  unsup- 
ported by  France  or  the  Sultan,  he  was  probably  right  to  do  so,  but 
he  has  reserved  to  himself  the  right  of  explaining  the  matter  in  his  own 
way,  through  Tigrane. 

"  Osman  Bey  is  far  from  friendly  to  Abbas,  being  a  partisan  of 
Prince  Halim,  and  having  a  grudge  against  Ismail  and  all  his  house, 
because  Ismail  had  his  brother  strangled  at  Senaar  in  1878.  He  gave 
us  a  tragic  history  of  this.  He  says  the  Sultan  has  been  bought  over 
to  English  interests,  that  he  communicated  everything  that  passed  at 
Constantinople  between  him  and  Abbas  to  the  English  Embassy,  and 
that  he  has  £20,000,000  sterling  invested  in  English  securities,  es- 
pecially with  the  Ottoman  Bank. 

"  6th  Feb. —  Captain  Broadwood  (afterwards  General  Broadwood) 
came.  He  told  me  the  story  of  the  Khedive's  quarrel  with  Kitchener 
as  he  had  heard  it  from  Colonel  Settle,  a  good  authority.  According1 
to  this,  the  Khedive  when  receiving  the  officers,  native  and  English, 
after  the  review  expressed  his  satisfaction  with  all,  except  the  infantry, 
under  Colonel  Lloyd's  command.  Kitchener  was  not  present,  and 
coming  back  a  few  moments  afterwards  said  to  Lloyd,  '  Go  and  tell  the 
men  the  Khedive  is  pleaded  with  them,'  taking  for  granted  that  it  had 
been  so.  '  I  am  afraid  I  can't  quite  do  that,'  said  Lloyd,  '  for  His 
Highness  has  just  expressed  disapproval  of  my  part  of  it.'  Thereupon 


128  The  French  at  Timbuctoo  [1894 

Kitchener  went  after  the  Khedive,  and  no  one  knows  exactly  what 
took  place  between  them  as  they  were  alone.  '  It  is  all  the  more 
curious/  said  Broadwood,  '  because  just  before  the  Khedive  left  for 
the  south,  he  received  us  at  Abbassieh  and  spoke  in  quite  a  friendly 
tone.'  I  have  no  doubt  Kitchener  made  a  quarrel  of  it  purposely  to 
get  the  Khedive  back  from  the  frontier,  and  that  Cromer  still  further 
exaggerated  it  for  political  reasons.  The  '  Daily  News '  has  an  article 
anything  but  unfavourable  to  my  article,  though  in  common  with  all  the 
English  papers  it  has  been  full  of  violent  words  lately  against  the 
Khedive. 

"  Gerald  Portal  is  dead  in  England.  I  am  sorry  for  this  on  Lady 
Edmund  Talbot's  account,  as  she  and  her  sister  had  reckoned  on  his 
succeeding  Cromer  here.  I  see  the  newspapers  make  great  count  of 
him,  but  he  was  a  man  of  very  ordinary  abilities,  pushed  on  by  Cromer, 
whose  faithful  pupil  and  understudy  he  was.  I  don't  know  that  he  is 
any  loss  to  us  politically  here. 

"  7//i  Feb. —  Spent  the  day  wading  through  nearly  a  hundred  news- 
papers from  England,  the  arrears  of  the  last  fortnight.  It  is  quite 
astonishing  the  lies  and  false  arguments  they  contain  about  everything 
Egyptian,  only  another  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  Press  is  in  reality  an 
engine  for  the  concealment  of  historic  truth,  the  most  complete  ever 
invented.  There  is  not  a  single  English  paper  that  treats  the  recent 
incident  here  with  even  a  semblance  of  fair  dealing.  Lying  hypocrisy 
and  violence  are  everywhere  the  order  of  the  day.  The  French  have 
pushed  a  military  column  forward  and  have  occupied  Timbuctoo !  I 
am  curious  to  know  the  exact  position  here  of  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment towards  the  French,  and  have  written  to  Tigrane  proposing  a 
visit. 

"  8th  Feb. —  Lunched  with  Tigrane  and  discussed  the  '  Frontier  in- 
cident '  with  him  at  length.  It  would  seem  that  the  Khedive  did  sev- 
eral things  while  on  his  journey  that  were  irregular.  Maher  Pasha, 
who  travelled  with  him,  was  formerly  Governor  of  the  Frontier  Prov- 
ince, and  put  him  into  communication  with  everybody  Kitchener  least 
wished  him  to  see.  At  Luxor  he  found  Minshatti,  the  Sheykh  of  the 
Abdabdeh,  who  was  condemned  to  death  five  years  ago,  but  whose 
sentence  had  been  commuted,  and  who  was  made  to  reside  at  Luxor. 
Him  Abbas  made  much  of,  took  on  board  his  dahabiyah  with  him  and 
released.  This  is  the  same  Minshatti  who  appealed  on  one  occasion 
to  me,  and  about  whom  I  wrote  to  Grenfell.  He  was  at  that  time 
specially  obnoxious  to  Kitchener,  then  head  of  the  Intelligence  depart- 
ment on  the  Upper  Nile. 

"  Again,  it  is  true  that  His  Highness  insisted  upon  making  a  desert 
expedition  farther  than  Kitchener  approved ;  and  again,  that  Kitchener 
had  had  some  Soudanese  soldiers,  five  of  them,  shot  on  the  plea  of 


1894]  Tigrane  on  the  Frontier  Incident  129 

desertion  without  the  Khedive's  sanction.  Tigrane,  however,  is  not 
very  certain  of  details,  and  urged  my  seeing  the  Khedive. 

"  As  to  the  final  quarrel  with  Kitchener  he  says  it  was  a  small  affair, 
and  the  story  given  me  by  Ghaleb  Bey  substantially  correct.  Kitchener, 
after  resigning  and  then  withdrawing  his  resignation,  had  assured  the 
Khedive  that  it  should  go  no  further.  Cromer,  however,  had  taken  it 
up  beyond  all  measure,  had  insisted  on  Riaz,  and  then  the  Ministry, 
accepting  his  terms  without  waiting  to  hear  the  Khedive's  story,  and 
had  threatened  consequences  which  they  dared  not  face.  I  asked  him 
what  these  were,  but  this  he  said  he  could  not  tell  me,  but  it  was  not 
merely  their  own  dismissal  as  Ministers,  I  fancy  it  was  that  the 
Khedive's  army  should  be  put  under  the  English  Commander-in-Chief. 
They  had  no  option  but  to  get  the  Khedive  out  of  the  scrape  as  they 
best  could.  The  French  Agency  had  gone  entirely  against  them,  owing, 
he  said  to  des  circonstances  personelles  on  the  part  of  Reverseaux. 
This  being  so,  the  position  is  of  course  a  very  dangerous  one.  Tigrane 
thinks  that,  if  the  English  Government  were  to  ask  the  French  Gov- 
ernment's leave  to  depose  Abbas,  the  French  Government  would  con- 
sider it  so  distinct  a  diplomatic  gain  that  it  would  consent. 

"  Tigrane  told  me  that  the  idea  of  addressing  a  circular  letter  ex- 
plaining the  '  Incident '  to  the  Powers  had  been  abandoned,  and  even 
that  of  addressing  such  a  letter  to  Cromer,  though  he,  Tigrane,  was  in 
favour  of  it.  There  was  danger  of  a  new  publication  of  Blue  Books. 
Cromer  has  been  compiling  things  against  the  Khedive  all  the  last 
year.  I  asked  him  if  these  were  things  affecting  the  Khedive's  moral 
character  and  he  said :  '  Oh  no.  But  the  Khedive  has  once  or  twice 
made  complaints  against  English  officers  which  he  had  been  unable  to 
substantiate,  of  drunkenness  and  the  like,  and  it  would  be  sought  to 
prove  that  he  was  mendacious  and  was  animated  by  ill-will.'  He 
thought  I  might  publish  an  explanation  without  committing  the  Khe- 
dive. But  I  cannot  do  this  unless  I  see  him,  nor  do  I  think  it  would 
be  as  good  a  way  as  officially  through  the  Foreign  Office.  He  assured 
me  there  was  no  truth  in  the  report  of  a  quarrel  between  the  Khedive 
and  his  Ministers.  '  We  got  him  out  of  his  scrape,'  Tigrane  said,  '  as 
we  best  could,  and  the  Khedive  knows  it.' 

"  gth  Feb. —  The  London  papers  are  really  too  monstrous.  It  is 
evident  to  me  that  Cromer  and  his  partisans  have  determined  upon 
Abbas'  removal  by  fair  means  or  foul,  and  that  do  he  what  he  will, 
nothing  now  will  satisfy  them.  I  am  anxious  all  the  same  that  he 
should  at  least  put  his  true  conduct  on  record,  and  I  have  written  to 
suggest  my  seeing  him. 

"  Yesterday  coming  home  I  met  young  Gordon,  General  Gordon's 
nephew,  who  gave  me  yet  another  account  of  the  frontier  incident. 
He  says  that  there  are  eight  battalions  of  native  troops  on  the  frontier 


130  Bill  Gordon  on  the  Situation  [1894 

under  Lloyd,  who  has  local  rank  as  Pasha,  and  that  there  is  great  dis- 
like and  jealousy  between  the  black  troops  and  the  Egyptian  troops. 
The  blacks,  he  says,  would  like  nothing  better  than  to  have  a  go  in  at 
the  Egyptians,  whom  they  hate  and  despise.  He  himself  inspected  the 
troops  on  the  frontier  a  few  weeks  ago  as  head  of  the  Store  department, 
and  found  the  Egyptian  battalions,  the  6th  and  7th,  in  a  very  slovenly 
condition.  It  was  just  these  that  the  Khedive  picked  out  to  praise,  and 
not  the  others,  of  which  he  said  they  were  a  disgrace  to  the  army. 
Lloyd,  he  tells  me,  has  been  a  great  upholder  of  the  Egyptian  soldiers, 
maintaining,  contrary  to  all  other  opinion,  that  they  are  as  good  as  the 
Soudanese,  '  but  I  fancy,'  he  added,  '  he  has  changed  his  opinion  now.' 
Gordon  is  very  severe  on  the  Khedive,  but  his  post,  if  I  mistake  not, 
is  one  of  those  newly-made  ones  as  to  which  there  was  an  objection 
raised  (by  the  Legislative  Council). 

"  nth  Feb. —  Brewster  Bey  called  on  me  this  afternoon,  having  been 
sent  by  the  Khedive  to  thank  me  for  my  article  in  the  '  Nineteenth 
Century,'  and  to  talk  over  the  situation.  He  is  a  little  man  of  about 
thirty-five  or  perhaps  more,  an  Englishman,  he  told  me,  born  in  Devon- 
shire, but  who  has  contracted  a  slightly  foreign  accent.  He  came  to 
Egypt  the  same  year  we  did,  in  1876,  first  as  a  clerk  in  the  customs  at 
Alexandria,  and  then  at  the  time  of  the  Suakim  campaign  for  three 
years  at  Suakim,  where  he  served  under  Kitchener,  when  Kitchener 
was  Military  Governor  there.  He  did  not  tell  me  how  he  happened  to 
get  the  post  of  private  secretary  to  the  Khedive,  but  he  is  clearly  an 
honest  man,  who,  from  his  sympathy  with  native  Egypt,  has  fallen 
into  disfavour  with  our  people.  '  I  am  on  the  black  list/  he  said,  '  at 
the  Agency,  and  beyond  leaving  cards  once  a  year,  I  see  nothing  of  any 
of  them.' 

"  He  spoke  in  the  warmest  way  of  his  young  master,  Abbas,  and  was 
indignant  at  the  treatment  he  had  received  in  the  affair  of  the  frontier. 
'  Will  you  believe  it,'  he  said,  '  but  to  the  present  moment  the  Khedive 
does  not  know  precisely  what  he  has  been  accused  of  saying?  He  has 
never  been  informed.'  I  urged  him  very  strongly  to  get  the  Khedive 
to  put  his  own  story  on  paper,  and  not  by  word  of  mouth,  to  Lord 
Cromer,  who  would  repeat  it  to  our  Government  after  his  own  fashion. 
It  ought  to  be  done  officially  through  Tigrane  and  at  once.  I  asked 
him  exactly  what  the  true  story  was,  and  he  told  me  that  what  the 
Khedive  had  told  him  was  that  after  the  review  at  Wady  Haifa,  the 
second  battalion,  which  is  an  Egyptian,  not  a  black  one,  under  English 
command,  had  got  out  of  order  in  the  manoeuvres;  that  when  alone 
with  Kitchener  he  had  expressed  himself  strongly  about  it,  saying  that 
it  was  a  disgrace  to  see  good  troops  so  badly  handled ;  that  Kitchener 
had  resigned  and  then  withdrawn  his  resignation,  and  had  told  the 
Khedive  the  matter  should  remain  a  secret  between  them,  and  that 


1894]  Brewster  Bey's  Narrative  131 

they  travelled  back  together  amicably  to  Assouan ;  but  that  there  Kitch- 
ener, who  seems  in  the  meantime  to  have  telegraphed  to  Cairo,  repre- 
sented to  His  Highness  that  before  leaving  Upper  Egypt  he  should 
issue  an  order  declaring  his  satisfaction  with  the  frontier  force;  that 
the  Khedive  had  demurred  to  this,  and  on  being  further  pressed  His 
Highness  had  said,  '  You  mean,  then,  to  make  it  a  political  matter  ?  I 
consider  this  is  a  question  within  my  limits  to  decide.'  Whereupon 
Kitchener  replied,  '  I  am  not  sure  what  Your  Highness'  limits  are.' 
What  more  happened  Brewster  does  not  know.  But  he  says  that, 
knowing  Kitchener  well  and  knowing  the  Khedive,  he  would  infinitely 
sooner  take  the  latter's  word  than  the  former's.  I  asked  him  what 
sort  of  man  Kitchener  was,  and  he  told  me  he  was  of  no  particular 
ability,  and  that  he  was  especially  ignorant,  for  a  man  who  had  seen 
so  much  employment  here,  of  native  character  and  native  ideas.  At 
Suakim  he  had  committed  the  grossest  blunders  in  this  way.  Kitch- 
ener's original  quarrel  with  Maher  (this  was  told  me  by  Kennedy)  was 
about  a  large  sum  of  secret  service  money,  as  to  which  Kitchener  re- 
fused —  Maher  being  Under  Secretary  at  the  War  Office  —  to  give  any 
account.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  trouble,  as  far  as  Kitchener 
was  concerned. 

"  Brewster  spoke  bitterly  of  the  French  and  Russian  Agents,  who 
had  turned  against  Abbas  in  this  difficulty,  as  they  had  done  the  year 
before.  With  regard  to  Constantinople,  he  also  does  not  trust  the 
Sultan,  '  who  will  do  whatever  the  English  Government  tells  him.'  As 
for  Mukhtar,  he  had  been  against  Abbas  all  through,  and  was  now 
playing  entirely  into  Cromer's  hands.  '  He  has  not  forgotten,'  he  said, 
'  the  Khedive's  telegram  to  Constantinople  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
when  he  asked  who  was  the  Sultan's  representative  here  in  Egypt, 
himself  or  Mukhtar?  '  Brewster  considers  the  situation  a  very  danger- 
ous one  for  Abbas  —  in  which  I  agree  with  him.  '  If  he  goes,'  he  said 
emphatically,  '  I  shall  not  stay  a  day  longer  in  Egypt.'  Nevertheless, 
the  Khedive  is  full  of  courage,  and  Brewster  promised  to  back  up  my 
advice  about  the  note  of  explanation  addressed  to  our  Government. 
He  thinks  I  can  do  no  good  by  explaining  matters  to  the  English  Press. 
A  very  honest  fellow  is  Brewster,  of  a  kind  one  would  wish  to  be 
served  by,  but  does  not  often  meet. 

"  ijth  Feb. —  I  have  written  a  long  private  letter  to  the  Editor  of  the 
'  Daily  News '  for  his  instruction,  not  for  publication,  explaining  the 
true  state  of  affairs  here. 

"  i()th  Feb. —  Lady  Dunmore,  who  was  here  with  her  daughters  a 
few  days  ago,  gave  us  a  thrilling  account  of  her  life  and  sufferings  in 
Kashmir,  where  they  were  taken,  she  being  an  invalid,  to  spend  two 
summers,  by  her  husband,  but  after  all  it  seems  to  have  done  her  good, 
and  the  girls  were  enthusiastic  about  it.  She  told  me  to-day  a  curious 


132  Lord  Dunmore  and  the  Czar  [1894 

story,  which  shows  how  things  are  done  in  Russia.  When  her  hus- 
band started  from  India  on  his  journey  through  the  Pamir  country,  the 
Emperor  of  Russia  —  Dunmore  has  Russian  relations  —  gave  him  a 
private  letter  which  secured  him  free  passage  through  the  Russian 
lines.  On  his  return  the  Emperor  wrote  to  him  begging  that  he  would 
come  and  see  him  at  St.  Petersburg  and  give  him  an  account  of  what 
he  had  seen,  the  Emperor  being  very  anxious  to  have  unbiassed  evi- 
dence of  the  state  of  things  in  Central  Asia.  To  this  Dunmore  re- 
sponded, and  wrote  as  many  as  three  letters  expressing  his  willingness 
to  come,  but  never  any  further  message,  until  quite  lately  he  has  learned 
that  none  of  his  letters  were  received  by  the  Emperor.  It  appears  that 
the  men  about  the  palace  exercise  an  absolute  supervision  over  all  the 
Imperial  correspondence,  and  even  the  Princess  of  Wales  finds  diffi- 
culty in  communicating  with  her  sister.  Now  Dunmore  has  asked  at 
the  Foreign  Office  that  his  letter  of  explanation  should  be  presented  by 
the  Ambassador,  or  rather  the  Charge  d' Affaires,  in  private  audience. 
The  Emperor  it  appears  has  been  furious  at  getting  no  answer,  and 
Lady  Dunmore  says :  '  When  he  finds  out  the  truth  there  will  be 
journeys  to  Siberia  for  some  of  those  concerned.' 

"  22nd  Feb. —  Dormer  called.  He  gave  us  the  alarming  intelligence 
that  there  is  a  scheme  on  foot  for  bringing  the  Cairo  sewage  into  this 
neighbourhood.  It  is  indeed  the  abomination  of  civilization  standing 
in  the  Holy  Place.  We  have  always  looked  upon  the  desert  as  the  one 
pure,  imperishable  possession,  but  if  this  is  to  be  made  a  stink-pot  for 
our  nostrils  we  are  indeed  lost."  This  plan,  which  was  already  in  an 
advanced  stage  with  coloured  surveys  on  a  large  scale,  entitled  de- 
risively "  Projets  d'assainissement,"  I  was  the  means  under  Providence 
of  preventing.  I  wrote  to  Lord  Cromer  representing  the  economical 
folly  of  the  project  which  had  chosen  the  only  district  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Cairo  suitable  for  building  a  rural  suburb,  seeing  that  it  was 
the  only  one  which  possessed  an  abundance  of  good  water  in  a  sandy 
soil,  and  he  yielded  to  my  argument,  with  the  result  of  what  is  now  the 
populous  suburb  of  Heliopolis  having  grown  up  there.  Dormer,  who 
became  afterwards  Lord  Dormer,  was  at  that  time  employed  in  the 
Egyptian  Financial  Department. 

"  2yd  Feb. —  Lady  Francis  Osborne  came  full  of  serious  advice  to 
me  about  my  '  radical  politics,'  and  the  stir  my  writings  were  making 
among  the  officials  here.  '  Why  do  you  take  pleasure  in  making  your 
fellow  men  unhappy  ?  ' 

"  A  visit  from  three  little  journalists,  Sheykh  Ali  Yusuf ,  Editor  of 
the  '  Mowayad '  (the  first  Nationalist  newspaper  at  Cairo  since  Tel  el 
Kebir),  Mohammed  Mesaoud,  and  Abderrahman  Ismail.  A  worthy 
man  is  Ali  Yusuf,  with  nothing  of  civilization  about  him.  Just  a  little 
Azhar  student  in  a  turban,  clever  and  sympathetic,  but  without  knowl- 


1894]  The  Due  d'  Orleans  133 

edge  of  the  western  world.  The  others  with  a  slight  veneer  of  Europe, 
but  hardly  deeper  than  their  clothes."  This  is  the  first  mention  in  my 
diary  of  Sheykh  Ali  Yusuf,  who  played  so  important  a  part  later  in 
Cairo's  journalistic  history. 

"27th  Feb. —  Princesse  Helene  and  her  brother  the  Due  d'Orleans 
spent  the  afternoon  here.  They  have  been  up  the  river  in  a  dahabiyah 
to  Wady  Haifa,  and  enjoyed  themselves  immensely.  He  is  a  good 
young  fellow,  manly  and  intelligent,  and  extremely  nice  to  her.  He 
tells  me  that  in  Somaliland  he  has  seen  as  many  as  500  ostriches  to- 
gether. They  go  in  packs  in  the  autumn  and  winter  months,  males  and 
females  separately,  but  pair  in  the  early  spring.  The  buffaloes  even 
there  are  almost  extinct.  It  was  nearly  dark  when  they  left,  and  I  rode 
back  with  them  as  far  as  the  obelisk. 

"  28th  Feb. —  Heavy  rain,  enough  to  make  the  spouts  on  the  roof 
run,  the  first  time  they  have  done  so  since  the  house  was  finished  more 
than  two  years  ago.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  nonsense  talked  about 
the  increase  of  rain  in  Egypt  since  the  Suez  Canal  was  made  —  and  of 
fogs  since  the  British  occupation.  It  is  pure  rubbish.  Reading  old 
accounts  of  travellers  two  and  three  hundred  years  ago,  I  see  that  they 
generally  remark  that  there  is  but  little  rain  in  Egypt,  never  that  there 
is  none,  and  so  it  is  now.  All  the  change  there  has  been  is  a  certain 
increase  of  morning  fogs  and  dampness  through  the  increased  irriga- 
tion of  the  Delta,  but  I  am  a  sceptic  about  the  increase  of  rain.  Old 
West,  our  Consul  at  Suez,  told  me  ten  years  ago  that  in  his  experience 
there  of  forty  years  he  had  remarked  no  change."  I  tested  this  once 
later  by  questioning  my  chief  Bedouin,  Suliman,  whose  home  is  the 
desert  between  Cairo  and  Suez,  on  this  head.  "  Do  you  not  find,  Suli- 
man," I  said,  "  a  great  change  in  the  climate  here  in  your  recollection?  " 
"  Oh,  yes,"  he  answered,  "  there  is  a  great  one,  and  sadly  for  the  worse. 
When  I  was  a  boy,  we  had  beautiful  rains  on  the  upper  country  with 
eshub  (green  spring  herbage)  every  year  for  our  camels,  now  not  a 
single  drop,  all  is  burnt  up,  a  sad  change  certainly." 

"  4th  March. —  Gladstone  has  really  retired  from  public  life.  He 
went  to  Windsor  yesterday,  so  the  telegrams  say,  and  gave  in  his  resig- 
nation, recommending  Rosebery  as  his  successor.  I  suppose  now  he  is 
gone  there  will  be  a  general  chorus  of  praise,  but  for  my  part  I  shall 
not  join  it.  He  has  betrayed  too  many  good  causes  not  to  be  an  evil 
doer  in  my  eyes,  and  his  one  remaining  cause,  Ireland,  he  leaves  in  the 
lurch  to-day  by  his  retirement.  I  am  glad  to  see  that  Labouchere  and 
twenty  more  members  of  Parliament  have  protested  against  Rosebery's 
succession. 

"  6th  March. —  It  is  announced  in  the  '  Bosphorc  '  and  other  local 
papers  that  the  Sultan  has  telegraphed  his  entire  approval  of  the 
Khedive's  action  in  the  late  crisis,  and  has  instructed  his  Ambassador  in 


134  Rosebery  Prime  Minister  [1894 

London  to  protest  against  the  accounts  of  it  published  in  our  news- 
papers. This,  if  true,  is  most  important.  The  Sultan  has  also  pre- 
sented Abbas  with  a  palace  on  the  Bosphorus,  a  gift  of  more  doubtful 
omen. 

"  ^th  March. —  It  appears  that  Rosebery  has  carried  the  day  and  is 
to  be  Prime  Minister.  He  is  an  astute  Whig  of  the  Palmerston  type, 
and  the  Radicals  have  got  what  they  deserve.  The  policy  in  Egypt 
can  hardly  long  remain  unchanged,  and  I  should  not  be  surprised  to 
see  Rosebery  entering  on  a  scheme  for  the  partition  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  It  cannot  well,  however,  be  carried  into  effect  without  war, 
and  so  I  hope  that  under  Providence  it  may  result  in  the  partition 
rather  of  that  other  Empire  for  the  sake  of  which  we  in  England  have 
sold  our  old  principles  of  freedom  and  respect  for  International  right. 
The  Radical  jingo  is  the  ugliest  feature  of  our  modern  politics." 
Though  Lord  Rosebery  did  not  remain  in  office  long  enough  to  carry 
out  this  plan  in  person,  it  was  put  in  practice  later  by  his  Under  Sec- 
retary at  the  Foreign  Office,  and  understudy,  Sir  Edward  Grey,  with 
the  result  we  have  all  witnessed. 

"  i$th  March. —  Young  Aldridge  called.  He  tells  me  he  was  at  the 
celebrated  review  at  Haifa  when  the  Khedive  was  supposed  to  have 
insulted  the  officers.  He  was  staying  with  these  officers,  and  none  of 
them  were  aware  of  anything  in  the  way  of  a  crisis  having  occurred 
till  three  days  after  it.  He  says  the  opinion  of  the  officers  of  the 
Egyptian  army  on  the  spot  was  that  the  Khedive  had  said  nothing  but 
what  he  had  a  right  to.  He  had  praised  the  Camel  Corps  and  the 
artillery  and  the  cavalry,  but  had  criticized  the  infantry,  which  in  fact 
had  been  a  bit  in  disorder.  The  remarks,  whatever  they  were,  had 
been  made  half  a  mile  away  from  the  men,  and  the  men  knew  nothing 
about  them,  nor  ever  would  have  known  except  for  the  newspapers. 
'  What,'  says  Aldridge,  '  was  the  Khedive  there  for  if  not  to  make  re- 
marks?' This  doubtless  reflects  the  view  of  the  English  officers  con- 
cerned, as  Aldridge  is  Broadwood's  half-brother. 

"  i$th  March. —  Frank  Lascelles  is  made  Ambassador  at  St.  Peters- 
burg. It  seems  but  the  other  day  that  we  were  attaches  together  at 
Madrid,  sharing  all  things  in  common ;  he  deserves  his  promotion,  for 
he  has  worked  hard  for  it  in  many  a  dull,  forgotten  post.  Another 
promotion  is  Rendell's  to  the  House  of  Lords.  He  also  deserves  it  for 
his  great  humility. 

"  2oth  March. —  Kitchener  has  just  come  back  from  Suakim  from  a 
military  promenade  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Tokar,  where  the  country 
was  found  green  and  well  watered  with  streams  running  and  full  of 
wild  creatures,  ariels  and  gazelles.  All  this  because  for  five  years  the 
abominable  animal,  man,  has  been  excluded.  All  the  world  would  be 
a  paradise  in  twenty  years  if  man  could  be  shut  out. 


1894]  ft™2  Pasha  Resigns  135 

"  I4th  April. —  To  Cairo  with  Anne  and  Judith,  and  had  luncheon 
with  Riaz  Pasha  and  his  son  Mahmud.  The  old  man  was  gay  at 
luncheon,  and  talked  history  and  poetry  apparently  without  a  care  on 
his  mind,  but  when  the  ladies  were  gone  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  Harem  and 
we  were  left  alone,  he  suddenly  told  me  that  he  had  just  that  morning, 
that  very  morning,  sent  in  his  resignation  and  that  of  his  fellow  min- 
isters to  the  Khedive.  I  asked  him,  '  And  did  the  Khedive  accept  it  ?  ' 
He  answered,  '  A  peu  pres.'  Then  he  told  me  that  ever  since  the  affair 
of  the  frontier  there  had  been  a  lack  of  confidence  on  the  Khedive's 
part,  that  he  and  the  Ministers  had  not  been  supported,  and  that  the 
palace  paper,  the  '  Journal  Egyptien,'  had  entered  on  a  campaign  against 
them.  It  did  not  suit  his  dignity,  and  it  injured  the  public  service  to 
remain  under  those  conditions.  He  had  given  many  years  of  loyal 
service  to  his  country,  and  he  was  an  old  man,  and  he  should  retire 
now  once  and  for  ever.  A  tear  stood  in  the  poor  old  Minister's  eye, 
and  I  grieved  with  him  over  his  fall  with  all  sincerity.  He  then  talked 
bitterly  of  the  change  that  had  come  over  the  face  of  the  world  since  he 
began  his  official  life.  How  the  English  used  to  be  trusted  and  believed 
in  as  the  one  honest  nation  the  whole  East  over.  But  he  talked  more 
bitterly  still  of  the  French,  and  yet  more  of  his  rival,  Nubar,  who  he 
thinks  is  to  succeed  him.  It  is  doubtless  to  the  French  that  he  owes  his 
present  reverse,  though  Cromer  will  profit  by  it  to  the  extent  of  making 
a  split  between  Abbas  and  the  National  party.  Riaz  said  it  was  a  little 
of  all  their  doing.  He  talked  kindly  of  Rivers  Wilson.  Of  Rosebery, 
he  said  he  had  seen  him  twice  at  Cairo,  once  with  Cromer,  once  alone. 
When  alone  Rosebery  had  asked  him  whether  it  would  not  be  better  to 
have  an  English  Under  Secretary  in  every  department,  but  that,  said 
he,  '  I  told  him  would  be  putting  two  captains  to  a  ship,  it  would  go 
down.'  I  told  him  Rosebery  was  a  dangerous  man  in  power  as  far  as 
Egypt  and  the  East  were  concerned,  that  I  should  not  wonder  if  he 
solved  all  difficulties  by  a  partition  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  a  gloomy 
view  in  which  the  old  man  shared.  *  Poor  Egypt,'  he  said,  '  poor 
Egypt !  *  It  is  a  strange  chance  that  has  made  me,  in  spite  of  1882, 
the  confidant  of^  his  political  griefs,  but  in  truth  our  views  on  most 
things  are  identical.  He  hates  Western  civilization  almost  as  bit- 
terly as  I  do  myself.  He  sent  us  away  with  benedictions  and  loaded 
with  roses  from  his  door. 

"  i$th  April  (Sunday). —  Mohammed  Abdu  spent  the  day  with  us. 
He  says  the  National  party  is  in  despair  at  Riaz'  resignation,  and  still 
more  at  Nubar's  return  to  power,  for  Nubar  means  a  reign  of  money 
makers  and  speculators,  and  the  government  of  Egypt  by  Europeans 
and  Syrians,  strangers  from  every  land. 

"  I'jth  April. —  To  Koubbah  Palace  (Abbas'  country  residence,  three 
miles  from  Sheykh  Obeyd).  I  was  taken  to  the  garden  and  found 


136  Abbas  Explains  [1894 

Abbas  sitting  under  some  trees  near  the  stables,  looking  at  Arab  mares 
which  were  being  paraded  before  him.  With  him  was  the  old  Sou- 
danese Mohammed  Taher,  whom  the  Khedive  introduced  to  me  as  a 
loyal  Shaggia.  We  talked  first  about  the  horses,  six  of  them,  for  which 
Abbas  said  he  was  offering  £800.  But  only  two  of  them  were  good 
ones.  These  were  a  brown  mare,  like  our  Queen  of  Sheba,  and  a  little 
grey  with  a  fine  shoulder,  perfectly  level  back,  and  tail  grandly  carried. 

"  Presently  the  young  Khedive  began  on  politics.  He  went  through 
the  whole  story  of  the  frontier  incident  and  Riaz'  resignation,  and  his 
appointment  of  Nubar.  As  to  the  first  his  account  was  much  what  I 
had  already  heard.  He  said  that  it  was  originally  a  quarrel  between 
Kitchener  and  Maher  Pasha  —  that  when  Maher  was  appointed  Under 
Secretary  at  the  War  Office,  Kitchener  had  tried  to  persuade  him  to 
refuse,  but  Maher  had  persisted,  though  his  pay  was  reduced  thereby 
from  £120  to  £100  a  month.  When  Abbas  started  for  the  frontier, 
Kitchener  had  tried  to  prevent  Maher  going  with  him.  However,  all 
went  well  till  the  famous  review  at  Wady  Haifa  when  he  had  found 
fault  with  the  second  battalion,  and  had  told  the  English  officer  that 
his  battalion  had  done  very  badly  —  this  in  the  presence  of  Kitchener 
and  eleven  officers,  some  English,  some  Egyptian.  Afterwards  he  had 
had  a  private  talk  with  Kitchener,  and  had  told  him  it  was  a  shame  good 
Egyptian  troops  should  be  so  badly  handled,  and  Kitchener  had  tend- 
ered his  resignation.  But  the  Khedive  had  begged  him  not  to  take  it  in 
so  serious  a  way,  and  the  resignation  was  withdrawn  and  the  thing 
ended. 

"  After  this  they  travelled  two  days  together  on  excellent  terms,  till 
on  the  third  they  came  to  Assouan.  There  the  Khedive  wanted  to 
telegraph  to  Riaz,  but  found  the  wires  occupied  by  Kitchener.  Never- 
theless he  sent  his  telegram  to  Riaz,  telling  him  what  had  occurred  and 
that  it  was  of  no  importance.  Later,  Kitchener  came  to  him  and  asked 
him  to  send  two  words  of  commendation  to  the  officers  of  the  frontier 
garrison  before  leaving,  as  he  said  the  officers  were  offended  and  were 
tendering  their  resignations.  The  Khedive  asked  him  whether  he 
wished  to  make  a  political  question  of  it,  and  asserted  that  it  was  within 
his  prerogative  to  send  or  not  to  send  such  a  message.  To  which  Kitch- 
ener replied  that  he  was  not  sure  whether  it  was  so.  Nevertheless  the 
dispute  ended  in  Kitchener's  promising  to  say  no  more  about  it.  Riaz 
had  been  weak  in  allowing  his  hand  to  be  forced.  As  to  the  change  of 
Ministry,  Abbas  said  that  when  he  had  seen  Lord  Cromer  he  had  con- 
sulted him  as  to  whom  he  should  send  for,  and  Lord  Cromer  had  said 
Nubar.  Abbas  had  objected  that  he  was  a  Christian,  Lord  Cromer 
had  advised  against  a  Christian  Prime  Minister  last  year.  Lord  C. 
then  said  there  was  no  choice  unless  the  Khedive  would  like  Mustafa 
Fehmi.  The  Khedive  then  proposed  Fakri  and  Mazlum.  But  Lord 


1894]  His  Quarrel  with  Cramer  137 

Cromer  said  they  were  both  insignificant.  In  the  end  Abbas  had  given 
way  about  Nubar,  and  there  was  a  compromise  about  the  rest  of  the 
Cabinet.  Fakri  goes  to  Public  Instruction,  Mustafa  Fehmi  to  the 
War  Office,  Mazlum  to  Finance,  and  Butros,  who,  Abbas  said,  had 
betrayed  the  secrets  of  the  late  Cabinet  all  through  to  Lord  C,  to 
Foreign  Affairs.  He  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  it.  I  said  that  I 
had  no  confidence  in  Nubar,  but  recommended  him  as  soon  as  he  was 
tired  of  Nubar  to  have  back  a  Nationalist  Ministry,  strengthening  it  by 
adding  some  European  he  could  trust  for  Foreign  Affairs.  He  prom- 
ised to  remember  my  advice. 

"  The  Khedive  then  talked  of  his  camel  ride  to  Suez,  and  lastly  con- 
sulted me  about  going  to  England  this  next  summer.  I  said  I  would 
try  and  find  out  for  him  what  line  would  be  taken  there  about  his 
reception,  and  especially  by  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  let  him  know. 
He  begged  me  to  write  to  him.  As  to  publishing  anything  he  would 
leave  that  to  my  discretion.  Then  he  made  the  old  Soudani  sit  near 
and  talked  about  Zebeyr,  who  is  evidently  out  of  his  favour,  and  so 
after  about  an  hour  he  got  up  and  took  me  to  see  his  camels,  and  then 
with  a  few  more  words  about  my  writing  to  him  we  said  good-bye. 

"  Although  extremely  friendly  and  nice  to  me  personally,  I  confess 
that  he  impressed  me  less  favourably  this  time  than  before.  He  has 
clearly  made  a  dreadful  hash  of  things,  and  seems  to  attach  more  im- 
portance to  the  getting  rid  of  Kitchener  than  to  the  larger  political 
questions.  I  can  see  that  he  is  in  the  hands  of  the  intriguers  that 
surround  him,  and  that  he  is  no  match  for  Cromer,  who  has  won  the 
game  against  him  through  the  Khedive's  own  mistakes.  Not  that 
Nubar's  appointment  is  much  advantage  to  English  policy,  for  Nubar 
is  in  French  interests,  but  Lord  Cromer  has  certainly  won  a  personal 
victory.  The  future  to  me  looks  very  black.  The  young  man  has 
lost  something  of  his  frankness,  and  of  his  first  sublime  self-confidence, 
which  was  h:s  strength,  and  I  fear  he  will  degenerate  into  the  shifty 
intriguer  his  father  was  before  him.  Still  he  is  more  manly  than 
that,  and  with  honest  advice  may  yet  go  well.  But  who  is  to  give 
it  him? 

"  iSth  April.— Our  Mowled  of  Sheykh  Obeyd.  A  calf  was  killed 
for  the  labourers  in  the  garden,  and  the  girls  and  those  who  have  been 
at  work  on  the  new  house,  and  a  lamb  for  the  Sheykhs,  with  recitations 
and  chauntings  in  the  evening.  [This  was  a  religious  festival  held 
annually  in  our  garden  at  the  tomb  of  Sheykh  Obeyd.]  " 

The  Bee  Birds  have  been  wonderful  this  year,  three  or  four  hundred 
roosting  every  night  in  the  trees  near  the  house.  I  cannot  quite  make 
out  what  they  do  in  the  day-time,  for  they  all  disappear  from  the  gar- 
den, coming  back  about  half  an  hour  before  sunset.  Most  of  these 
birds  travel  north  at  this  time  of  year,  but  a  few  stay  on  during  the 


138  Cromer  Triumphant  [1894 

summer.     There  are  also  some  of  the  large  spotted  cuckoos  in  the 
garden  just  now. 

"  2Oth  April. —  Our  last  day  at  Sheykh  Obeyd.  I  am  grieved  to 
leave  it  this  year  more  than  any  year  before,  and  have  half  made  up 
my  mind  that  this  shall  be  my  last  visit  to  England.  My  true  home  is 
more  and  more  in  Egypt." 

We  left  the  following  day,  and  here  I  close  this  chapter.  With  it 
ends  the  episode  as  far  as  I  was  personally  concerned  in  it  of  the 
National  movement  of  1892-1894.  It  failed  through  the  absence  of 
any  strong  leader  to  take  direction  of  it;  through  the  youth  and  inex- 
perience of  the  Khedive  Abbas;  through  the  unscrupulous  determina- 
tion of  Lord  Cromer  acting  in  what  he  considered  English  Imperial 
interests,  and  through  the  still  more  unscrupulous  money  interests 
worked  through  Lord  Rosebery  from  London  and  Paris.  Lord  Rose- 
bery's  family  connection  with  the  Rothschilds  is  a  sufficient  explanation 
of  this  last  influence.  French  diplomacy  at  Cairo  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  very  weakly  managed  by  M.  de  Reverseaux,  the  French  Consul 
General  there,  though  how  much  of  the  vacillation  between  encourage- 
ment given  to  the  Nationalists  when  they  made  a  forward  move,  and 
their  abandonment  when  the  advance  had  been  made,  was  due  to  the 
French  Representative  at  Cairo  or  to  the  Ministers  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay, 
I  cannot  determine.  Be  it  as  it  may,  the  spring  of  1894  saw  the  move- 
ment lose  its  force,  and  brought  to  a  complete  standstill  a  year  later  by 
the  retirement  in  his  turn  of  Nubar  Pasha,  and  Lord  Cromer's  installa- 
tion as  absolute  despot  ruling  Egypt  through  a  dummy  Minister, 
Mustafa  Pasha  Fehmi,  while  the  Khedive  Abbas,  cut  off  from  all 
legitimate  exercise  of  his  viceregal  rights,  consoled  himself  with  the 
follies  of  youth,  money  speculations,  and  impotent  intrigue. 

It  was  the  history  repeated  a  hundred  times  over  of  the  English 
manipulation  of  the  native  States  of  India.  To  me  it  was  a  mournful 
spectacle,  a  blank  period  during  which,  though  still  maintaining  a  deep 
interest  in  what  went  on,  I  held  a  position  entirely  of  spectator,  keeping 
touch  with  the  local  politics  of  the  day  during  my  winter  visit  to  Sheykh 
Obeyd  mainly  through  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu,  whom  I  established 
on  a  corner  of  my  property  in  a  country  house  within  half  a  mile  of 
my  own.  He  had  an  advantage  for  me  as  historian  and  diarist  of 
being  personally  intimate  with  Mustafa  Fehmi  who  concealed  nothing 
from  him,  while  Abdu  concealed  nothing  from  me.  It  was  as  an 
historian  only  that  I  followed  the  development  of  the  Cromerian  regime, 
until  in  1906  Cromer's  astonishing  blunders  of  that  year  once  more  gave 
life  to  Egyptian  Nationalism,  and  it  found  a  voice  in  Mustafa  Kamel. 
My  diary  in  the  meagreness  of  its  political  entries  corresponds  with  my 
political  abstention  during  this  weary  interval.  Nevertheless  there 


1894]  Nationalism  Quiescent  139 

were  moments  when  I  said  my  say  with  our  politicians  on  Egyptian 
affairs,  and  in  the  London  "  Times,"  notably  in  the  year  of  the  new 
invasion  of  the  Soudan  under  Kitchener  in  1896,  of  Fashoda,  and  of  the 
fatal  entente  with  France  in  1904.  The  entries  then  have  a  renewed 
importance,  the  rebirth  of  Nationalism  in  1906  having  lured  me  once 
more  into  the  field  as  an  active  combatant  for  Egypt's  independence. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A   SUMMER  IN    ENGLAND,    1894 

The  first  news  that  greeted  me  on  my  return  to  London  from  Egypt 
in  the  Spring  of  1894  was  the  engagement  of  my  friend  Margot  Ten- 
nant  to  Mr.  Asquith,  a  political  event,  as  it  turned  out,  of  the  first 
magnitude,  though  perhaps  not  fully  appreciated  as  such  at  the  moment. 
I  find  it  recorded  thus : 

"  ist  May. —  To  Grosvenor  Square,  where  I  found  Sir  Charles  Ten- 
nant  very  important  over  his  daughter's  approaching  marriage.  '  It  has 
gone  on  now/  he  said,  '  for  a  year  and  a  half,  at  first  all  on  Asquith's 
side,  but  now  Margot  is  sincerely  attached  to  him.  She  has  smartened 
him  up  wonderfully,  you  would  hardly  know  him/  Upon  which  in 
walks  Asquith,  a  little  smooth-shaved  middle-aged  man,  with  a  beatific 
smile  on  his  face,  as  of  one  to  whom  Heaven's  doors  have  been  opened. 
He  reminded  me  very  cordially  of  our  former  meetings  on  Home  Rule 
platforms,  and  in  answer  to  my  congratulations,  said,  '  Indeed  you  have 
reason  to  congratulate  me.'  Sir  Charles  gives  his  daughter  £2,000  a 
year  and  a  house  in  Cavendish  Square.  They  are  to  spend  the  honey- 
moon in  Caroline  Grosvenor's  house,  30,  Upper  Grosvenor  Street,  which 
they  have  rented  for  the  season. 

"  4th  May. —  George  Wyndham  came  to  see  me.  We  discussed 
Rosebery,  and  agreed  that  he  was  overrated  as  a  statesman,  a  clever 
after-dinner  speaker,  but  nothing  more.  He  had  been  pushed  for- 
ward by  the  press  and  the  Jews  as  a  sort  of  Stock  Exchange  candidate, 
but  he  could  not  last  as  leader  of  a  party.  George  applauded  my  inten- 
tion of  formally  returning  to  the  Conservative  fold  [a  momentary  in- 
tention never  carried  out,  for  I  joined  no  party]. 

"  7/A  May. —  Lunched  with  Sir  William  Harcourt.  In  spite  of  ac- 
counts of  his  ill-health  I  found  him  looking  better  than  for  a  year  or 
two.  His  budget  comes  on  for  second  reading  to-night  (he  was  still 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer),  and  Loulou  told  me  in  private  that  it  is 
quite  possible  the  Government  may  be  beaten  on  it.  Sir  William  was. 
nevertheless,  in  high  spirits,  and  I  think  enjoyed  my  denunciation  of 
Rosebery  as  '  Minister  of  the  Stock  Exchange/  Alfred  Milner  came 
in  and  we  had  some  chaff,  good-naturedly,  about  Egypt.  Nubar  has 
been  playing  his  old  games  there  already,  giving  a  concession  to  a  land 

140 


1894]  The  Asquith  Wedding  141 

company  he  is  interested  in.  Milner  admitted  he  was  an  old  rogue. 
Afterwards  in  private  Loulou  told  me  that  his  father  would  probably 
retire  from  public  life  at  the  end  of  the  present  Parliament.  He  him- 
self intends  to  do  so  as  soon  as  the  Budget  is  through. 

"  loth  May. —  Margot's  wedding  day,  showery  and  cold,  but  with 
occasional  gleams  of  sunshine.  St.  George's  crammed  to  the  ceiling 
with  the  gayest  world  of  the  gay.  It  is  the  only  church  in  London  I 
have  the  smallest  romance  about,  but  to  me  it  is  interesting  and  touch- 
ing from  the  vast  number  of  marriages  it  has  seen  (including  my  own). 
It  is  old-fashioned,  with  nice  comfortable  pews,  and  none  of  the  tawdry 
Gothic  rubbish  they  are  fond  of  elsewhere.  De  Staal  was  there  in  the 
same  pew  with  us,  and  there  were  Rosebery  and  I  believe  all  the 
Ministers,  and  Gladstone,  who  came  in  late  and  was  cheered  outside, 
and  Arthur  Balfour.  Margot  was  pale,  very  pale,  but  firm  and  de- 
cided, Asquith  much  smartened  up.  A  great  crush  in  the  Tennant 
house  afterwards  in  Grosvenor  Square,  Margot  surrounded  by  a  crowd 
of  women  friends.  She  drove  away  in  a  slatey-blue  dress,  an  apple- 
green  straw  hat  and  dark-blue  flowers. 

"  iStli  May. —  In  consequence  of  a  talk  I  have  had  with  Lady  Lytton 
I  have  written  to  Arthur  Ellis  on  the  subject  of  the  Khedive's  intended 
visit  to  England.  In  it  I  said :  '  When  I  was  leaving  Egypt  the  other 
day  the  Khedive,  whom  I  went  to  take  my  leave  of,  spoke  to  me  of  his 
proposed  visit  to  Europe,  which  was  then  not  quite  decided  on,  and 
asked  me  to  find  out  for  him  confidentially  whether  if  he  came  to  Eng- 
land, his  reception  would  be  a  really  cordial  one.  By  this  he  meant  not 
so  much  whether  there  would  be  the  usual  official  reception,  whatever 
that  might  be,  due  to  his  rank,  as  whether  he  might  count  upon  the 
kindly  feeling  of  the  Court  and  especially  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to- 
wards him.  From  what  I  know  of  him  I  feel  sure  that  it  is  more  in 
the  power  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  than  of  Lord  Rosebery  or  of  any 
of  the  officials  to  place  things  in  Egypt,  as  far  as  the  Khedive  is  con- 
cerned, on  a  more  satisfactory  footing  than  they  have  lately  been.  The 
Khedive  is  very  suspicious  of  Lord  Cromer,  not  as  I  think  entirely 
without  reason,  for  the  quarrel  between  them  is  no  doubt  largely  a 
personal  one,  and  I  think  that,  if  it  could  be  conveyed  to  him  that  he 
could  count  at  least  on  a  friendly  reception  at  Marlborough  House,  he 
would  be  less  likely  to  listen  to  the  advances  which  are  pretty  sure  to 
be  made  to  him  in  Paris  on  his  way  through.  In  my  opinion  large 
political  interests  are  involved  in  the  issue  of  this  visit.' 

"  To-day  the  tenantry  of  Crabbet  presented  Judith  with  a  silver  cup 
on  her  coming  of  age.  They  were  most  hearty,  and  recalled  the  fact 
of  most  of  them  holding  their  farms  from  father  to  son  for  generations. 
Judith  made  an  admirable  speech  in  reply,  delivered  in  a  clear  voice 
and  with  a  charming  manner.  Then  I  showed  them  some  of  the  family 


142  The  Prince  of  W 'ales'  Message  [1894 

deeds  and  they  all  drank  champagne  in  tumblers.  The  leaders  among 
them  were  the  two  Caffins  and  young  Wright  of  Pryors  Farm.  The 
servants,  too,  at  Crabbet  are  making  her  a  presentation.  We  have,  I 
think,  seven  house  servants  who  have  been  over  twenty  years  with 
us. 

"  2ist  May. —  An  answer  has  come  from  Arthur  Ellis  with  an  in- 
formal message  from  the  Prince  of  Wales.  It  is  most  satisfactory. 
He  says :  '  Whilst  the  Prince  of  Wales  feels  some  hesitation  in  send- 
ing any  message  to  the  Khedive  except  through  the  accredited  official 
channel,  I  may  say  that  should  His  Highness  determine  upon  a  visit  to 
England,  he  will  certainly  receive  from  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  from 
society  in  general  every  possible  attention.'  I  have  written  to  the 
Khedive,  conveying  to  him  the  message." 

This  little  piece  of  diplomacy  I  had  afterwards  reason  to  regret, 
successful  as  it  proved  in  bringing  the  Khedive  to  England.  The  in- 
fluence of  Maryborough  House  was  not  a  wholesome  one  for  the  Khe- 
dive's patriotism,  and  in  other  ways  proved  detrimental,  as  will  be  seen 
later. 

"  22nd  May. —  I  see  a  report  in  the  evening  paper  that  the  Sultan 
has  forbidden  the  Khedive  to  go  to  England,  but  it  sounds  to  me  hardly 
likely. 

"  24th  May. —  Breakfasted  with  Sir  Henry  Loch  and  had  much  talk 
with  him  about  '  civilization '  in  Africa.  He  expressed  his  fear  of  the 
spread  of  Mohammedanism  southwards  as  likely  to  prove  a  danger.  I 
wish  I  could  think  it.  He  also  asked  about  Arabia  in  a  way  which 
sounded  as  if  they  may  have  their  eye  on  it,  too,  in  the  scramble  that 
is  going  on.  He  told  me  the  Chinese  were  driving  the  Russians  back 
in  Central  Asia. 

"Anne  and  Judith  have  taken  rooms  at  31,  South  Street  for  the 
season. 

"  2?th  May  (Sunday.)  —  On  Wednesday  I  called  on  Randolph 
Churchill  in  Grosvenor  Square  (his  mother's  house)  and  had  some 
political  talk  with  him.  He  is  terribly  altered,  poor  fellow,  having 
some  disease,  paralysis,  I  suppose,  which  affects  his  speech,  so  that  it  is 
painful  to  listen  to  him.  He  makes  prodigious  efforts  to  express  him- 
self clearly,  but  these  are  only  too  visible.  He  talked  of  his  election 
prospects  at  Bradford  and  the  desire  of  the  Conservatives  to  delay  the 
turning  out  of  the  Rosebery  Government.  About  Egypt  he  said,  '  You 
know  my  opinion  about  evacuation  is  unchanged,  but  my  tongue  is 
tied.'  "  This  was  the  last  time  I  saw  him.  I  remember  that  as  he  came 
to  the  door  with  me  he  tried  again  to  explain  to  me  what  he  wanted 
to  tell  me  about  Egypt,  but  broke  down  and  said,  almost  in  tears,  "  I 
know  what  I  want  to  say,  but  damn  it,  I  can't  say  it." 


1894]  George  Meredith  at  Box  Hill  143 

"  28th  May. —  Breakfast  with  George  Wyndham.  He  is  at  last 
bringing  out  his  book  of  French  Lyrics.  With  any  luck  it  should  be  a 
great  success. 

"  loth  June  (Sunday). —  To  Wotton  to  see  Evelyn,  who  is  in  poor 
health.  He  wants  me  to  act  in  concert  with  him  on  the  question  of  a 
new  Conservative  candidate  for  East  Grinstead.  On  Thursday  I  met 
Frederic  Harrison,  just  back  from  France.  There  is  great  excitement 
about  the  Anglo-Belgian  Agreement  in  regard  to  the  Congo  and  Upper 
Nile,  the  last  of  Rosebery's  thieves'  treaties,  but  Harrison  says  the 
wirepullers  assure  him  that  the  French  menace  will  come  to  nothing. 
I  am  not  so  sure,  as  it  is  being  taken  up  in  Germany  also. 

"  nth  June. —  Still  at  Wotton.  After  luncheon  drove  to  Box  Hill  to 
see  George  Meredith.  Found  him  with  his  daughter,  a  pretty  little  bar 
maiden  just  engaged  to  Russell  Sturgis,  and  another  young  lady.  He 
is  terribly  deaf  and  afflicted  with  creeping  paralysis,  so  that  he  staggers 
from  time  to  time  while  walking,  and  once  to-day  nearly  fell.  It  does 
not,  however,  affect  his  mind,  and  he  has  a  novel  on  hand  at  the  present 
moment  which  keeps  him  writing  six  hours  a  day.  He  is  a  queer, 
voluble  creature,  with  a  play-acting  voice,  and  his  conversation  like 
one  dictating  to  a  secretary,  a  constant  search  for  epigrams.  I  took 
the  bull  by  the  horns  at  once  about  his  novels,  said  I  never  read  prose 
and  looked  upon  him  only  as  a  poet.  This  pleased  him,  and  he  gave 
me  two  volumes,  recommending  to  me  especially  the  piece  called 
'  Attila.'  He  told  me  Tennyson  was  the  first  person  to  discover  the 
merits  of  '  Love  in  a  Valley.'  I  asked  him  to  explain  sundry  obscurities 
in  '  Modern  Love,'  and  he  said  he  would  do  so  if  I  would  come  up  with 
him  to  a  little  literary  den  he  has  at  the  top  of  his  garden,  but  the 
young  ladies  unfortunately  followed  us,  and  he  was  unwilling  to  talk 
about  this  poem  before  them,  so  I  missed  my  chance.  During  our  talk 
a  luncheon  was  brought  to  him  on  a  tray,  as  he  said  he  was  too  busy  to 
sit  down  to  a  regular  meal,  and  could  not  write  after  one  o'clock,  so  I 
left  him  to  his  work  and  drove  on.  I  had  driven  my  four  horses  in  at 
the  front  entrance,  a  difficult  feat,  and  got  them  out  again  and  went  on 
over  the  hill  to  Ockham,  where  I  picked  up  Judith,  and  back  in  the 
evening  again  to  Wotton  over  Ranmore  Common  and  down  the  steep 
descent  of  Coombe  Bottom.  I  fancy  in  all  history  no  team  of  four 
horses  was  ever  driven  before  down  that  road,  not  even  by  Tommy  On- 
slow  of  happy  memory,  certainly  not  by  a  woman,  for  Judith  had  the 
reins. 

"  Compare  the  local  rhyme,   for  Onslow  lived  close  by : 

What  can  Tommy  Onslow  do? 
He  can  drive  a  coach  and  two, 
Can  Tommy  Onslow  do  no  more? 


144  S**  Poets  at  a  Wedding  [1894 

He  can  drive  a  coach  and  four. 
Where  shall  we  his  merits  fix  ? 
He  can  drive  a  coach  and  six. 

"  i$th  June. —  Dr.  Leitner  called  to  talk  over  Egyptian  and  Moham- 
medan affairs.  He  is  gloomy  about  prospects  as  I  am  in  the  East, 
where  the  old  sympathy  for  Eastern  things  amongst  Englishmen  is  fast 
dying  out,  and  a  reign  of  Western  intolerance  is  taking  its  place. 
There  is  danger  of  a  partition  of  the  Ottoman  dominions,  for  there  is 
nowhere  the  smallest  wish  in  Europe  to  see  reform  in  them,  and  all 
Powers  alike  are  in  arms  in  Africa  against  the  Mohammedan  Arabs. 
This  is  for  England  and  Germany  a  new  feature  and  a  dangerous  one 
for  Islam. 

"  iSth  June. —  Miss  Violet  Maxse's  wedding,  an  omnium  gatherum, 
social,  political,  and  literary.  The  bridegroom,  Lord  Salisbury's  third 
son,  brought  the  Tories ;  Maxse,  the  Liberal  Unionists,  with  Chamber- 
lain and  the  rest ;  the  young  lady,  her  friends.  I  counted  six  poets  in 
the  church,  including  myself,  Alfred  Austin,  George  Meredith,  Alfred 
Lyall,  Oscar  Wilde,  and  Edwin  Arnold.  I  found  myself  next  to  Lyall, 
who  told  me  the  latest  joke  about  the  Laureateship.  '  If  one  must  have 
a  Laureate,  choose  the  least  of  evils,  choose  Austin.'  At  the  bride's 
house  the  crowd  was  immense,  and  I  found  myself  for  ten  minutes 
flattened  like  a  herring  between  Lord  Salisbury  and  a  tall  Dutch  clock. 
Truly  matrimony  makes  strange  pew  fellows. 

"  22nd  June. —  Gave  a  dinner  at  Mount  Street  to  Lady  Granby,  Lucy 
Smith,  d'Estournelles,  Alfred  Lyall,  and  Godfrey  Webb,  all  of  us  more 
or  less  poets.  After  dinner  we  read  and  recited  poetry,  d'Estournelles 
being  by  far  the  most  effective,  having  an  admirable  manner. 

"  I  hear  that  Edward  Malet  is  going  to  resign  his  Embassy  at  Berlin 
because  he  was  not  consulted  on  the  Congo  arrangement. 

"  26^/1  June. —  Received  a  visit  from  M.  Ducroix,  Editor  of  the  Paris 
'  Matin.'  He  asked  me  my  opinion  of  the  situation  in  Egypt,  and  I 
gave  it  him  very  frankly,  and  of  French  policy  there.  '  French  diplo- 
macy,' I  said,  '  had  made  two  capital  mistakes,  first  in  not  supporting 
native  as  opposed  to  European  interests,  and,  secondly,  in  making  the 
perpetual  opposition  it  does  to  our  English  policy  without  being  pre- 
pared to  fight.'  He  said  they  were  his  own  views.  Reverseaux  had 
to  his  own  knowledge  promised  the  Khedive  to  back  him  in  the  Spring 
of  1893  with  a  French  fleet  at  Alexandria,  and  then  had  left  him  in  the 
lurch.  It  was  the  fault  of  the  home  Government  more  than  Rever- 
seaux's. 

"  30//i  June  and  ist  July. —  Our  Annual  Crabbet  Club  Meeting.  The 
members  present  were: 


1894]  Keats  Memorial  Ceremony  145 

George  Wyndham,  Hubert  Howard, 

George  Curzon,  Godfrey  Webb, 

George  Peel,  Mark  Napier, 

George  Leveson  Gower,  Theobald  Mathew, 

Esme  Howard,  Charles  Gatty, 

St.  George  Lane  Fox,  Laurence  Currie, 
Eddy  Tennant, 

with  three  new  members,  Lord  Cairns,  Alfred  Douglas,  and  Basil 
Blackwood. 

"  i^tk  July. —  Called  on  Frank  Lascelles,  who  is  just  starting  as 
Ambassador  for  St.  Pettersburg.  We  talked  over  old  and  new  times. 
He  and  I  were  exact  contemporaries,  both  in  age  and  in  the  diplomatic 
service,  and  it  is  just  thirty  years  ago  that  we  were  at  Madrid  together 
as  attaches.  Without  any  very  special  abilities  he  has  made  a  rapid 
career  by  hard  work  and  good  sense.  We  talked  of  the  Asiatic  question 
and  the  Egyptian  question.  He  does  not  believe  in  the  possibility  of 
saving  any  part  of  Persia  from  Russia,  who  could  take  it  whenever 
she  has  a  mind  to.  I  walked  with  him  to  call  on  Staal,  and  left  him  at 
the  door. 

"  i6th  July. —  To  the  Keats  memorial  meeting  at  Hampstead  with 
George  Wyndham,  a  curious  ceremony.  It  took  place  in  the  parish 
church,  the  vicar  and  his  choir  assisting  in  surplices,  but  the  proceed- 
ings were  entirely  mundane.  Gosse,  who  presided,  made  a  dull,  plati- 
tudinous oration  in  the  tone  of  a  sermon  (his  father  was  a  Nonconform- 
ist lecturer),  and  the  others  were  even  duller.  Houghton  alone  was 
brief  and  to  the  point.  The  poet's  bust  was  then  unveiled,  and  through- 
out the  only  allusion  to  religion  was  when  one  of  the  speakers  enumer- 
ated what  Keats  was  not,  and  included  in  the  list  that  he  was  not  a  re- 
ligious propagandist.  When  all  was  over  the  worthy  vicar  consoled 
himself  with  some  prayers  and  an  anthem. 

"  ijth  July. —  A  brilliant  luncheon  with  Margot  and  her  husband  at 
30,  Upper  Grosvenor  Street,  and  I  took  her  her  Wedding  Ode,  which 
I  had  written  for  her  amusement.  The  other  guests  were  Mrs.  Gren- 
fell,  Mrs.  Daisy  White,  Ribblesdale,  his  brother  Reggie  Lister,  and 
Oscar  Wilde,  all  immensely  talkative,  so  that  it  was  almost  like  a 
breakfast  in  France.  Asquith  alone  rather  out  of  it.  I  sat  next  to 
him  and  was  rather  sorry  for  him,  though  he  was  probably  happy 
enough.  Afterwards,  when  the  rest  had  gone  away,  Oscar  remained, 
telling  stories  to  me  and  Margot." 

This  is  a  very  poor  account  of  an  interesting,  and  in  the  sequel  a 
tragic,  incident  which  has  remained  strongly  impressed  on  my  mind,  as 
it  was  one  that  showed  Oscar  Wilde  at  the  height  of  his  social  glory, 
and  as  the  last  occasion  on  which  I  found  myself  in  his  company.  Of 


146  Oscar  Wilde.  "I  Never  Walk"  [1894 

all  those  present,  and  they  were  most  of  them  brilliant  talkers,  he  was 
without  comparison  the  most  brilliant,  and  in  a  perverse  mood  he  chose 
to  cross  swords  with  one  after  the  other  of  them,  overpowering  each  in 
turn  with  his  wit,  and  making  special  fun  of  Asquith,  his  host  that  day, 
who  only  a  few  months  later,  as  Home  Secretary,  was  prosecuting  him 
on  the  notorious  criminal  charge  which  sent  him  to  hard  labour  in 
prison.  I  remember,  too,  as  a  characteristic  trait  of  his  dandyism,  that 
when  at  the  end  of  the  half  hour  we  remained  on  talking,  we  went 
away  together  from  the  door,  I  to  walk  back  to  my  rooms  in  Mount 
Street,  and  he  to  pay  a  visit  in  the  same  direction,  hardly  farther.  I 
said,  "  We  will  walk  together  as  far  as  Grosvenor  Square."  "  No, 
no,"  he  said,  and  called  a  passing  hansom.  "  I  never  walk." 

This  was  the  end  of  my  London  season,  and  the  only  extracts  I  can 
find  in  my  diary  at  all  of  a  public  character,  which  was  otherwise  de- 
voted entirely  to  the  social  care  of  amusement  and  launching  Judith  in 
the  world.  It  is  a  record  especially  of  dinners  that  I  gave,  and  which 
were  for  a  moment  rather  the  fashion  with  the  Soul  society  at  my 
rooms  in  Mount  JStreet. 

"  25/7*  July. —  Crabbet.  With  Judith  on  a  pilgrimage  to  see  Huxley 
at  Eastbourne.  He  lives  in  a  new  house  he  has  built  near  the  cliff  and 
with  Beachy  Head  behind  it.  He  was  very  cordial  and  pleasant,  and 
his  wife,  an  excellent  old  soul,  most  kind  to  Judith.  We  had  only  two 
hours  with  him  but  we  talked  all  the  time  about  the  origin  of  the 
Arabian  horse,  and  I  think  I  got  from  him  all  the  information  he  had 
to  give.  He  said  that  in  reality  nothing  was  known  at  all  clearly  except 
that  horses  were  unknown  in  Egypt  under  the  fourth  dynasty,  that 
there  had  been  a  close  connection  with  Arabia,  and  that  if  there  had  been 
horses  in  Arabia  there  would  have  been  horses  also  in  Egypt,  but  how 
they  eventually  came  to  Arabia  was  mere  guesswork.  Arabia  had 
doubtless  been  in  former  times  well  watered,  and  it  was  possible  a  wild 
horse  might  have  been  isolated  there  in  the  South  (this  was  my  sugges- 
tion) long  after  the  drying  up  of  the  northern  plateaux,  but  the  his- 
torical evidence,  such  as  there  was,  was  against  it.  We  might  expect 
something  from  the  cuneiform  records  when  thoroughly  examined. 
Pietrement's  theories  were  merely  speculative. 

"Of  the  human  race  in  Egypt  he  said  that  he  had  long  suspected  a 
common  origin  for  them  with  the  Dravidians  of  India,  perhaps  a  long 
belt  of  brown-skinned  men  from  India  to  Spain  in  very  early  days.  Of 
savage  races,  he  said  he  had  no  sympathy  with  them ;  he  considered 
there  was  more  difference  between  the  man  of  the  criminal  class  in 
London  at  the  present  day  and  the  high  type  of  educated  thinker,  than 
between  the  Australian  savage  and,  say,  the  average  man  of  the  time 
of  Elizabeth.  '  Yet,'  I  objected,  '  I  suppose  you  could  educate  your 


1894]  Francis  Thompson  147 

young  criminal  into  being  a  bishop.'  '  Yes,'  he  said,  '  a  bishop  would 
be  easy  enough  because  the  other  bishops  would  look  after  him,  but  not 
a  country  parson,  that  would  be  a  dangerous  experiment.'  He  was  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  grey  Arab  horses  were  not  foaled  grey. 

"  6th  Aug. —  A  party  at  Crabbet  for  Sunday.  The  Meynells,  George 
Wyndham,  Alfred  Douglas,  and  Blanche  Wortley.  Coventry  Patmore, 
Henley,  and  Locker  could  not  come.  Meynell  told  us  much  that  was 
interesting  about  Francis  Thompson,  who  is  the  latest  discovered  of  the 
poets. 

"  Thompson's  history  is  most  curious.  He  was  educated  at  Ushaw, 
and  his  father  wanted  him  to  become  a  doctor,  but  he  had  a  distaste 
for  it  and  could  not  or  would  not  pass  his  examinations.  This  led  to  a 
quarrel,  for  the  father  had  married  a  second  time,  and  Thompson  was 
turned  out  of  the  house,  or  left  it  in  anger.  He  came  to  London,  where 
he  fell  into  extreme  poverty,  walking  the  streets  as  a  beggar  for  five 
years  and  sleeping  under  the  arches  by  the  Thames.  The  money  he 
earned  he  spent  on  opium,  which  drugged  him  to  endurance  of  his  life. 
Nevertheless,  he  once  attempted  suicide,  spending  what  remained  to  him 
on  a  large  dose  of  laudanum  enough  to  kill  two  men.  He  divided  it 
into  two  portions  and  retired  to  I  forget  what  cemetery  in  the  city  and 
took  the  first  half  —  whereupon  he  had  a  vision  in  which  he  saw  Chat- 
terton,  who  took  him  by  the  hand  and  comforted  him,  and  reminded 
him  how  the  very  morning  after  his  suicide  a  letter  had  come  from  a 
publisher  which  would  have  relieved  him.  So  he  did  not  take  the  sec- 
ond dose,  and  recovered  to  find  the  dream  fulfilled  by  the  arrival  pre- 
cisely of  a  letter  from  a  friend  enclosing  him  the  cutting  of  one  of  his 
poems  printed  by  Meynell  in  '  Merrie  England.'  Thompson  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  writing  poems  on  any  scraps  of  paper  he  could  pick  up 
and  had  sent  several  of  them  to  Meynell,  and  among  them  a  paper  on 
Paganism  and  Christianity,  which  Meynell  had  pigeon-holed  and  for- 
gotten till  six  months  later,  when  he  read  them  and  found  them  excel- 
lent. Then  he  had  tried  to  get  into  communication  with  Thompson,  but 
had  lost  trace  of  him  and  had  published  the  papers  in  hope  of  attracting 
the  author's  attention.  This  succeeded,  and  Thompson,  seeing  his  writ- 
ings in  print,  wrote  Meynell  an  angry  letter  about  it,  giving  the  address 
of  a  chemist's  shop  near  Charing  Cross.  Thither  Meynell  went,  and 
on  inquiry  was  told  that  Thompson  owed  a  bill  there  of  four  shillings 
for  opium,  that  he  had  no  abode,  but  might  be  found  at  nights  in  the 
street  in  front  of  Charing  Cross  Station. 

"  Through  the  intervention  of  the  chemist  he  was  eventually  dis- 
covered and  sent  to  Meynell's  house  apparently  with  but  few  weeks  to 
live,  for  he  was  dying  of  opium.  Meynell  wanted  him  to  go  to  a  hos- 
pital, but  at  first  he  refused  on  account  of  a  girl  with  whom  he  had  a 


148  A  Visit  to  Stratford  [1894 

friendship  in  the  streets.  She  had  been  kind  to  him,  just  as  had  been 
the  case  with  De  Quincy,  and  Thompson  refused  to  go  anywhere  where 
he  should  be  unable  to  see  her.  But  the  girl  insisted  that  he  should  go 
to  the  hospital,  and  when  he  came  out  of  it  cured  she  had  disappeared. 
I  asked  Meynell  whether  it  was  not  a  case  of  love  rather  than  friend- 
ship, but  he  said :  '  No.  Thompson  told  me  that  it  was  not  so,  that 
in  his  condition  there  could  have  been  no  question  of  physical  love ;  he 
was  too  constantly  starved.'  Thus  Thompson  was  saved.  He  has 
now  for  the  last  year  been  sent  to  Pantasaph,  the  Capuchin  monastery, 
where  he  is  taken  care  of  and  kept  away  from  drugs.  He  writes  poetry 
and  prose  and  has  no  other  occupation.  Meynell  will  bring  him  here 
one  day.  He  showed  us  a  fine  poem  of  his  still  in  manuscript,  entitled 
'  Amphicypellon,'  which  he  will  have  printed  privately." 

This  was  followed  by  a  pilgrimage  to  Stratford-on-Avon,  which  I 
had  long  intended,  and  which  I  now  accomplished,  going  by  road  with 
my  four  horses,  and  taking  my  cousin  Alfred  Douglas  with  me,  stop- 
ping at  several  friends'  'houses  on  our  way,  Lady  Hayter's  at  South 
Hill,  and  Dr.  Watney's  at  Buckholt,  and  Mr.  Harvey's  at  Woodstock. 
Then  across  the  Wolds  by  Chipping  Norton  to  Stanway,  where  we  were 
amongst  relations,  and  so  on,  two  days  later,  to  Stratford.  Of  this  I 
write : 

"  i$th  Aug. —  All  the  way  to  Stratford  there  are  lovely  villages, 
houses  of  the  seventeenth  century  built  of  stone,  with  stone  roofs,  peo- 
ple harvesting  magnificent  crops,  but  it  is  a  thing  to  remark  that  in  all 
this  country,  north  of  the  Wiltshire  and  Oxfordshire  downs  there  is 
no  single  common,  or  bit  of  waste  land  where  a  traveller  might  pitch 
his  tent.  Stratford  -itself  is  a  very  pretty  town,  standing  on  a  fine, 
clear  river,  with  little  that  is  modern  about  it,  marred  only  by  the 
monstrous  Shakespeare  memorial,  a  Victorian  building,  perhaps  the 
most  degraded  in  architecture  of  our  graceless  age.  Here  Alfred  left 
me  in  a  hurry  to  return  to  London,  while  I  stayed  on  fulfilling  the  ob- 
ject of  my  pilgrimage  by  reading  the  Sonnets  at  the  poet's  tomb. 

"  Sitting  on  the  chancel  steps  and  in  full  view  of  the  monument  with 
the  poet's  portly  bust  and  its  inscription,  a  new  light  broke  on  me  with 
regard  to  his  character,  and  I  seemed  to  see  him  with  less  mystery,  the 
full  fed  prosperous  citizen  he  doubtless  was  in  his  later  years,  affecting 
gentility  and  honoured  of  his  neighbours.  The  truth  is  there  is  nothing 
really  more  romantic  in  a  poet  than  in  other  men  when  seen  at  home. 
The  original  cast  of  his  face  they  show  in  Shakespeare's  house,  said  to 
have  been  taken  after  death,  shows  him  a  strong  practical  man,  not  over 
refined,  one  who  at  the  present  day  would  have  been  a  successful  jour- 
nalist and  man  of  letters.  The  Shakespeare  of  the  Sonnets  does  not 
appear  in  this  bust,  rather  the  playwright  and  ready  writer  of  dialogue 
for  the  stage.  I  can  imagine  him  in  this  year  of  grace,  1894,  figuring 


1894]  With  Morris  at  Kelmscott  149 

as  a  George  Augustus  Sala,  or  a  Druriolanus  in  the  London  literary  and 
dramatic  world.  Fortunately  he  was  born  300  years  ago.1 

"  On  my  way  home  I  stopped  at  Kelmscott,  where  after  dinner  we 
played  at  twenty  questions,  the  things  chosen  for  our  guessing  being 
the  white  horse  of  White  Horse  Hill,  the  pen  Chaucer  wrote  the  ficst 
line  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  with,  and  the  American  volume  of  Ros- 
setti's  '  House  of  Life,'  which  Morris  gave  his  wife.  It  is  always  a 
pleasure  to  find  Rossetti  still  a  living  memory  in  this  house. 

"  i6th  Aug. —  Made  a  late  start  as  I  dawdled  on  talking  with 
Morris,  and  trying  to  prove  to  him  that  he  and  Ruskin  had  done  more 
harm  than  good  by  their  attempt  to  make  English  people  love  beauty 
and  decorate  their  architecture.  He  defended  himself  good-humour- 
edly,  but  I  think  has  doubts,  nevertheless,  for  we  are  engulfed  to-day 
in  a  slough  of  ornament.  I  maintained  that  the  old-fashioned  square 
cardboard  box  style  was  less  abominable,  as  were  the  days  when  it  was 
considered  bad  taste  to  attempt  any  kind  of  prettiness.  However  at 
noon  I  got  away  and  drove  in  floods  of  rain  to  Uffington,  and  up  the 
face  of  White  Horse  Hill.  There  the  sun  came  out,  and  I  pitched  my 
tent  under  lee  of  the  ancient  camp  where  there  was  a  splendid  crop  of 
grass  for  the  horses,  and  stopped  for  the  night.  There  was  a  full 
moon,  and  it  was  bitter  cold.  Morris  declares  the  White  Horse  to  be 
a  work  of  the  Stone  Age,  probably  20,000  years  old.  In  the  night  my 
horses,  which  I  had  tethered  to  the  carriage  pole,  broke  loose  and  wan- 
dered away,  and  I  had  a  long  run  after  them  in  the  moonlight  during 
which  I  crossed  the  old  white  chalk  one,  without  finding  mine,  but  it 
is  hard  to  track  horses  on  the  grass,  and  we  could  do  nothing  till  day- 
light, and  not  much  then.  In  the  course  of  the  morning  they  were 

1  Not  long  ago,  being  asked  to  write  a  sonnet  for  the  Shakespeare  Tercente- 
nary I  embodied  my  impression  gathered  on  this  occasion  at  Stratford  in  the 
following : 

"  A  TERCENTENARY  SONNET 

"  SHAKESPEARE,  what  wisdom  shall  truth  tell  of  thee, 

More  than  fame  speaks?    The  world  thy  playhouse  is 
Packed  floor  to  roof  to-night  with  votaries 

Shouting  thy  author's  name  vociferously. 

They  call  thee  to  the  curtain  front.     Ah  me, 
Hast  thou  no  word  for  our  sublimities, 
No  cryptogram  of  grace  to  crown  our  bliss? 

Nay  speak  out  all,  thou  man  of  mystery. 

Tell  us  the  truth. —  I  seem  to  hear  a  voice 
From  far-off  Stratford,  pestered  at  the  call, 
The  voice  of  a  hale  man  of  middle  age, 

Civic,  respected  :    '  Who  are  these  lewd  boys 
Would  call  me  back  to  their  fool's  festival? 
Truce  to  all  mummings.     I  have  left  the  stage.' " 

25  February,  1916. 


150  Savernake  Forest  [1894 

fortunately  brought  back  by  some  farm  people  who  had  found  them 
grazing  two  miles  away.  We  then 

"  \jth  Aug. —  Followed  the  Ridgeway,  a  rough  grass  track  along  the 
crest  of  the  down  as  far  as  near  Lyddington  Castle,  when,  striking  a 
high  road,  we  turned  left  and  came  to  Aldbourne,  and  so  to  the  Kennet 
river  and  Savernake  Forest,  where  just  before  sunset  we  camped  under 
one  of  the  beech  avenues,  a  lovely  spot,  dry  and  secluded,  except  for  the 
wandering  fallow  deer.  To-night  we  bivouacked,  there  being  no  sign 
of  rain.  It  was  my  birthday  of  fifty-four,  yet  I  feel  little  of  the  cares 
of  age. 

"  iS>th  Aug. —  Away  before  seven  driving  across  the  forest,  which  is 
splendid.  Near  its  centre  stands  a  column  with  the  following  inscrip- 
tion of  supreme  grandiloquence: 

This  column  was  erected 

by  Thomas  Bruce  Earl  of  Ailesbury 

as  a  testimony 

of  gratitude 

to  his  ever  honoured  uncle 
Charles  Earl  of  Ailesbury  and  Elgin 

who  left  him  these  Estates 
and  procured  for  him  the  Barony  of  Tottenham; 

and  of  loyalty 
to  his  most  Gracious  Sovereign 

George  III 

who  unsolicited  conferred  upon  him 

the  honour  of  an  Earldom, 

but  above  all 

of  Piety 

To  GOD  FIRST  HIGHEST  BEST 

whose  blessing  consecrateth  every  gift 

and  fixeth  its  true  value 

MDCCLXXXI 

"  On  the  other  side  is  a  second  inscription  hardly  less  amusing : 

In  commemoration 

of 

a  signal  instance  of  Heaven's  protecting  Providence 
OVER  THESE  KINGDOMS 

in  the  year  1789 

by  restoring  to  perfect  health 

from  a  long  and  afflicting  disorder 

their  excellent  and  beloved  Sovereign 

GEORGE  THE  THIRD 

This  tablet  was  inscribed 

by 
GEORGE  BRUCE  EARL  OF  AILESBURY 


1894!  Stonehenge  151 

"  After  Savernake  we  came  down  into  the  Avon  valley  at  Pewsey, 
and  followed  the  river  on  to  Amesbury  where  we  baited,  and  so  later 
to  Stonehenge  where  we  camped  about  half  a  mile  from  the  stones 
under  lee  of  a  small  plantation.  The  stones  I  found  in  possession  when 
I  arrived  of  American  tourists,  but  even  these  could  do  little  to  injure 
the  fine  calm  of  the  place,  and  they  were  soon  gone,  and  about  midnight 
I  returned  and  went  again  in  full  solitude  to  the  stones  and  spent  an 
hour  there  alone,  making  incantations  in  the  hope  of  raising  some  ghost 
of  ancient  times,  but  in  vain,  and  though  I  repeated  the  Lord's  Prayer 
backwards,  nothing  would  come.  Perhaps  it  was  the  fact  that  in  order 
to  do  so  without  a  book  I  had  first  to  repeat  each  sentence  in  its  natural 
sequence,  and  this  may  have  neutralized  the  spell.  Then  I  lay  down 
under  one  of  the  fallen  blocks  and  dozed  off  for  an  hour  or  two,  but 
still  nothing.  Stonehenge  has  much  in  common  with  primitive  Egypt. 

"  igth  Aug.  (Sunday). —  Moved  eight  miles  on  to  Quarly  Hill,  and 
camped  to  the  west  of  it.  All  this  plain  must  once  have  been  heath 
with  scattered  juniper  bushes,  for  every  here  and  there  on  the  poorer 
land,  as  here  and  at  Stonehenge,  there  are  heath  and  juniper  patches 
left.  It  is  the  modern  sheep  grazing  that  has  brought  the  grass. 

"  Called  on  Major  Poore  who  lives  at  Middlecote,  close  by,  and  dined 
with  him.  He  is  Urquhart's  last  disciple  and  still  preaches  his  doc- 
trines. They  have  elected  him  a  County  Councillor,  and  he  is  organiz- 
ing his  district  on  a  system  of  his  own,  and  teaching  the  villagers  to  live 
according  to  the  Chinese  idea  of  domestic  socialism.  He  is  doing 
good,  or  at  any  rate  is  very  happy  in  the  thought  that  he  is  doing  so. 
He  talked  much  of  Urquhart  and  his  personal  charm.  We  passed  to- 
day close  by  Wilbury,  which  is  sacred  in  my  recollection  on  account 
of  Percy  and  Madeline  Wyndham,  whose  home  it  was  for  so  many 
years. 

"  2Oth  Aug. —  I  am  running  homewards  now,  a  long  day's  march,  by 
a  grass  road  to  Stockbridge,  and  thence  to  Winchester.  I  was  deter- 
mined to  re-visit  the  scene  of  my  old  slave  days  at  Twyford  School." 
This  I  accomplished,  but  the  account  of  it  in  my  diary  is  too  long  and 
too  personal  for  insertion  here.  Another  two  days,  22nd  August, 
brought  me  home  to  Crabbet,  making  up  345  miles  by  road  in  the  fifteen 
days  and  a  half  of  my  pilgrimage. 

Visits  to  Saighton  and  Cumloden  occupy  the  rest  of  my  diary  of  this 
summer  of  1894,  but  it  contains  nothing  of  any  political  consequence. 
On  2()th  September  I  write : 

"  I  am  preparing  for  a  long  departure  from  England,  which  may  be 
for  years  and  may  be  for  ever,  for  I  am  in  the  mood  for  farewells.  In 
public  matters  there  has  been  the  war  between  Japan  and  China.  My 
sympathies  are  with  Japan,  because  her  victory  will  mean  a  check  put 
to  European  expansion  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  an  encourage- 


152  Japan  at  War  with  China  [1894 

merit  to  Orientals  everywhere  to  arm  themselves  and  fight  against  it. 
Old-fashioned  China  is  a  colossus,  with  feet  of  clay,  interesting,  but 
doomed  if  it  does  not  put  its  house  in  order,  somewhat  on  European 
lines.  The  Japanese  stand  towards  China  much  as  Arabi  and  the 
Liberal  party  in  Egypt  stood  towards  Turkey  twelve  years  ago.  The 
defeat  of  Japan  by  China  would  have  meant  immediate  European  in- 
terference in  Japan's  affairs. 

"  I  am  leaving  home  for  Gros  Bois,  Tunis,  and  Egypt,  and  am  making 
arrangements  to  stay  abroad  over  next  summer,  but  I  promise  nothing 
to  myself.  Anne  and  Judith  will  meet  me  in  Egypt  in  the  middle  of 
November,  that  is  far  enough  ahead  for  my  hopes  to  look,  and  so  to 
Crabbet  I  bid  a  long  good-bye.  I  shall  perhaps  never  go  back  to  it  as 
my  home,  for  I  have  plans  of  making  Newbuildings  my  Sussex  home 
instead.  We  are  so  much  abroad,  that  so  large  a  house  and  establish- 
ment are  thrown  away  on  us.  Newbuildings  would  fulfil  all  our  pur- 
poses." 

My  usual  autumn  visit  to  Gros  Bois  lasted  till  i8th  October.  While 
there,  there  is  one  entry  worth  transscribing : 

"  iqth  Oct.  (Sunday). —  To  Paris  for  the  day  and  breakfasted  with 
General  Faverot.  He  had  with  him  General  Descharmes,  a  young  M. 
de  Sivry  (a  grandson,  Wagram  tells  me,  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick), 
and  a  son  of  General  Fleury.  Descharmes  talked  much  of  Japan, 
where  he  was  military  instructor  for  some  years,  and  in  glowing  terms 
of  their  success  in  the  war  with  China.  He  declares  them  to  have 
le  diable  dans  le  corps  for  fighting,  and  that  it  would  take  a  European 
Power  all  it  knew  to  beat  them.  '  I  would  not,'  he  said,  '  undertake  to 
land  an  army  in  Japan  with  less  than  60,000  men,  all  Frenchmen.' " 


CHAPTER  VIII 

A  VISIT  TO  TUNIS  AND  TRIPOLI 

My  winter's  journey  this  year  began  with  a  visit  I  had  long  designed 
to  pay  to  my  cousin,  Terence  Bourke,  in  Tunis,  where  he  had  bought 
land  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bizerta,  and  had  made  his  home,  having 
also  the  position  there  of  unpaid  British  Vice-Consul.  He  was  a 
younger  brother  of  my  old  ally,  "  Button,"  who  figures  so  conspicuously 
in  my  former  volumes,  and,  like  him  and  all  the  Bourkes,  was  gifted 
with  extreme  natural  ability  for  dealing  with  men  and  generally  for 
affairs.  Terence,  by  this  special  quality,  had  made  for  himself  an  ex- 
ceptional position  in  the  regency  of  Tunis.  He  had  learnt  to  talk 
Tunisian  Arabic  perfectly,  and  had  acquired  an  influence  with  the  na- 
tive Tunisians  of  all  classes,  unrivalled  by  any  other  European.  Of 
all  the  men  I  have  known  who  have  had  dealings  with  the  East,  and 
whom  I  have  seen  engaged  with  them  in  conversation,  I  place  him  first 
in  his  power  of  making  friends  with  them,  for  he  has  what  Englishmen 
so  seldom  possess,  an  inexhaustible  patience  equal  to  the  Oriental's  own, 
which  enables  him  to  sit  as  they  do,  hour  after  hour,  conversing  with 
them,  and  show  no  weariness  however  dull  their  talk.  This  is  a  great 
power,  and  through  it  he  has  always  been  successful  in  acquiring  their 
attentive  sympathy,  and  in  obtaining  from  them  their  confidence  and 
help.  I  have  often  thought  that  if  our  Foreign  Office  had  had  the  wit 
to  name  Terence  its  Ambassador  at  the  Sultan's  Court,  Abdul  Hamid 
would  have  remained  to  this  day  the  ally  of  England,  instead  of  its 
obstinate  enemy,  but  that  is  a  kind  of  intelligence  seldom  found  in 
Downing  Street.  This  is  my  diary  of  my  time  with  him. 

"  2ist  Oct.  (Sunday). —  Arrived  after  a  smooth  passage  at  Tunis. 
The  weather  still  very  hot  here.  Terence  met  me  on  the  quay,  and  we 
came  straight  up  to  his  house  in  the  Moslem  quarter,  a  lovely  old  tile- 
encrusted  bit  of  bric-a-brac  as  one  would  wish  to  live  in.  One  enters 
by  a  side  door  in  an  arched  passage,  through  which  the  street  passes, 
and  by  a  steep,  tortuous  stair  to  the  upper  floor.  One  has  to  stoop  to 
pass  into  the  apartment,  and  finds  oneself  in  a  marble  patio  with  four 
pillars,  supporting  a  dome  open  from  above,  the  walls  partly  tiled,  partly 
in  white  marble,  and  the  woodwork  of  the  roof  painted  in  red  and  green. 
From  this  central  hall,  which  is  about  20  feet  square,  the  rooms  branch 
off,  the  house  being  roughly  speaking,  though  not  exactly,  cross-shaped, 

153 


154  A  Visit  to  Tunis  [1894 

with  stair  and  passage  leading  to  the  harem  at  two  of  the  corners. 
The  furnishing  is  simple  and  Oriental,  but  without  pretence.  Terence 
keeps  one  young  man  as  house  servant,  a  porter  and  two  women,  a 
widow  and  her  sister,  whom  being  in  poor  circumstances,  he  took  into 
his  house  through  kindness,  Moslems  though  they  are,  without  offence 
in  the  neighbourhood,  and  who  are  his  servants,  strong,  able-bodied 
women  who  go  silently  about  the  rooms  with  arms  and  legs  bare  and 
unveiled. 

"  After  an  excellent  breakfast,  Terence  took  me  to  the  bazaars, 
which  are  more  beautiful  and  more  purely  Oriental  than  any  I  have 
seen,  and  then  to  the  Bey's  town  palace,  built,  but  on  a  large  scale, 
in  the  same  style  as  his  own  little  house,  which  I  have  just  described. 
In  contrast  to  all  this  we  then  passed  through  the  French  quarter,  mean, 
noisy,  and  with  stinks  beyond  description,  whereas  the  Arab  town  is 
sedate  and  clean  and  quiet.  I  have  never  anywhere  seen  a  contrast  so 
entirely  in  favour  of  Islam.  Tunis  has  recently  been  made  a  seaport 
by  the  French,  through  the  device  of  banking  up  and  dredging  a  State 
canal,  across  the  shallow  lagoon  which  divides  Tunis  from  the  sea, 
just  as  the  Suez  Canal  crosses  Lake  Menzaleh,  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand with  what  commercial  object,  as  there  is  not  sufficient  space 
inside  for  many  ships  to  lie.  A  better  plan  would  have  been  to  make 
the  port  at  Goleta,  the  site  of  Carthage,  which  is  near  the  sea,  and  is 
already  connected  by  railway  with  Tunis. 

"  22nd  Oct. —  Drove  with  Terence  to  the  site  of  Carthage,  where 
Cardinal  Lavigerie  has  built  an  unsightly  cathedral  and  monastery,  with 
a  buvette  attached  to  it  for  pilgrims  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Louis.  St. 
Louis  died  here  on  his  last  unfortunate  crusade  and,  Terence  tells  me, 
is  venerated  as  a  saint  by  the  Moslems  as  well  as  by  the  Christians  of 
the  district,  who  affirm  that  on  his  death-bed  he  made  profession  of 
Islam.  He  is  known  to  them  as  Sidi  Abu  Said,  and  they  show  his 
tomb  at  a  village  of  that  name  hard  by.  The  waiting  room,  never- 
theless, of  the  monastery  is  adorned  with  huge  cartoons  in  illustration 
of  his  victories  and  death  as  a  Christian  saint,  coloured  in  the  vilest 
form  of  French  ecclesiastic  art.  The  gasconading  of  these  pieces  is 
worthy  of  Lavigerie,  an  ambitious  prelate  who  pushed  himself  into 
public  notice,  with  the  aid  of  French  Chauvinism,  intending  to  become 
Pope.  This,  however,  was  not  in  the  decrees  of  Providence. 

"  From  Carthage  we  went  on  to  Marta,  a  summer  seaside  residence 
of  rich  Tunisians,  and  lunched  with  Drummond  Hay,  our  Consul- 
General,  and  his  family.  They  are  moving  in  a  few  days  to  Beirout. 
With  Hay  I  had  much  talk  on  North  African  affairs.  He  tells  me 
the  French  are  trying  to  work  their  frontier  round  by  Merzouk  to  the 
south  of  Tripoli,  where  they  are  beginning  to  open  markets,  but  he 
thinks  that  eventually  they  will  find  strong  resistance  in  the  Senussi 


1894]  Terrene e  Bourke  at  Bizerta  155 

confraternity.  They  are  making  friends,  however,  with  the  Tuaregs 
and  the  Negroid  inhabitants  of  the  southern  oases.  As  to  Egypt,  he 
professes  to  share  my  view  of  the  danger  and  uselessness  of  our  hold- 
ing it.  He  told  me  that  he  had  recently  been  given  the  opinion  of  one 
of  our  high  naval  experts,  and  that  it  was  to  the  effect  that  in  case 
of  war  with  France  the  garrison  in  Egypt  would  have  at  once  to  be 
withdrawn,  and  indeed  the  whole  Mediterranean  evacuated  by  our 
fleet.  To  hold  Egypt  would  not  be  possible. 

"  I  find  it  very  difficult  to  carry  on  a  conversation  in  the  Tunisian 
dialect,  even  the  commonest  Arabic  words  are  either  unknown  here 
or  so  travestied  as  to  be  unrecognizable.  There  is  a  fondness  for 
diminutives  and  for  throwing  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable.  Amidst 
the  more  educated  class  a  better  Arabic  is  spoken,  as  also  I  believe  by 
the  Arabs  of  the  South  and  the  Bedouins  generally,  but  the  Berbers 
are  nearly  unintelligible  to  me.  Terence  speaks  to  all  with  the  great- 
set  fluency,  a  vile  patois  but  with  precisely  the  native  Tunisian  accent. 
His  slightly  falsetto  voice  completing  his  disguise  as  no  European. 

"  2yd  Oct.  —  Called  with  Terence  on  Ri fault,  the  French  President 
in  Charge,  who  told  me  nothing  interesting,  only  the  common  banal- 
ities used  to  strangers  on  such  occasions ;  and  on  General  Leclerc,  the 
French  commander-in-chief.  This  done,  we  took  carriage  with  a  pair 
of  mules  for  Bizerta,  where  Terence  has  a  European  house,  a  distance 
of  some  forty  miles  in  less  than  five  hours.  A  long,  dull  road  with 
long  stretches  of  brown  fields,  at  this  time  of  year  empty  of  all  life 
except  that  of  a  few  poor  tents,  with  cattle  grazing  on  the  stubbles. 
It  is  not  till  near  Bizerta  that  the  hills  begin. 

"  2^th  Oct. —  At  Bizerta.  Terence's  house  here  is  less  interesting 
than  the  other,  being  modern  and  European  in  style.  He  has  told  me 
about  his  domestic  life  in  Tunis.  The  two  women  who  keep  house 
for  him  there  lived  in  his  quarter  and  were  very  poor,  and  he  has 
allowed  them  to  inhabit  his  house,  which  they  look  after  in  return. 
At  first,  he  said,  the  neighbours  objected  to  these  Moslem  women  living 
under  the  same  roof  with  him,  but  now  they  have  accepted  him  in 
their  quarter  and  find  no  fault.  Thus  he  has  been  able  to  lead  a  quite 
native  life,  has  learned  the  language  (Tunisian  Arabic)  thoroughly, 
and  knows  more  of  the  people  than  any  European  in  Tunis.  Here  in 
Bizerta  he  manages  his  large  property,  takes  contracts  of  all  kinds, 
speculates  in  oil,  and  acts  as  Her  Majesty's  unpaid  Vice-Consul  at  an 
office  in  the  town.  He  seems  beloved  of  all,  and  it  is  natural,  for  he 
is  kindly  and  quiet  and  full  of  intelligent  talk,  and  he  has  that  rare 
virtue  in  an  Englishman  of  being  never  in  a  hurry,  or  bored,  or  out 
of  temper,  or  too  busy  to  see  and  speak  to  the  poorest  man  that  calls 
on  him.  We  went  together  to  see  a  few  details  of  his  management. 

"  2$th  Oct. —  We  went  round  the  old  town,  once  a  famous  pirate's 


156  Tunisian  Horses  [1894 

nest,  now  becoming  little  by  little  invaded  by  Europeans,  but  still  in- 
teresting, and  stopped  to  drink  coffee  with  a  fat  citizen,  one  of  Terence's 
friends.  In  the  evening  we  rode  down  into  the  village  and  talked  again, 
but  I  am  confounded  to  find  that  I  understand  hardly  a  word  of  what 
is  said.  Terence  is  happy  and  at  home  with  everybodv  and  has  a 
fund  of  good  humour  which  makes  him  everywhere  le  bienvenu.  We 
played  chess  in  the  evening. 

"26th  Oct. —  We  have  had  much  talk  all  day  on  Oriental  and  re- 
ligious subjects,  and  I  find  Terence  to  have  ideas  not  unlike  mine  on 
these  matters,  and  we  have  made  a  plan  of  going  .in  the  Spring  to  visit 
the  Senussi  in  the  Tripolitan  desert  and  perhaps  making  profession 
of  Islam,  at  least  I  hope  some  day  to  do  so.  I  think  a  hermitage  of 
the  kind  I  have  been  seeking  might  be  found  in  the  country  near  Cyrene. 
In  the  evening  we  made  a  round  of  the  eastern  shores  of  the  lake  in 
a  steam  launch  belonging  to  the  Harbour  Company. 

"28^/1  October  (Sunday). —  Back  to  Tunis.  Terence  tells  me  the 
agricultural  colonists  here  are  of  a  superior  class  to  those  of  Algeria, 
there  being  some  young  Frenchmen  of  good  family  among  them. 
These  are  opposed  to  annexation,  and  take  the  part  of  the  natives  as 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  officials,  but  the  town  colonists  are 
for  making  Tunis  a  French  province.  The  worst  of  all  are  some  from 
Algeria,  where  they  are  all  rabid  against  '  les  Arabcs.' 

"  2<)th  Oct. —  Once  more  in  Terence's  delightful  house  in  Tunis, 
Rue  des  Silots,  41.  A  young  Tunisian  came  in  to-day  to  play  chess 
with  me  and  I  won  two  games  of  him,  but  he  has  considerable  ideas 
of  play  on  the  Arab  lines,  which  I  fancy  were  once  also  those  of 
Europe.  The  principal  differences  in  rule  are  that  the  pawns  cannot 
advance  two  steps  at  a  time  at  their  first  move  and  that  castling  is 
performed  in  three  moves,  the  king  having  the  right  on  the  second 
occasion  to  manoeuvre  like  a  knight.  This  young  man,  who  is  well 
educated,  talked  a  quite  comprehensible  Arabic,  and  I  am  beginning  to 
understand  the  others. 

"  We  went  in  the  morning  to  see  the  cavalry  remonte  and  were 
shown  sixty  or  seventy  stallions,  half-a-dozen  of  them  Arab,  none 
good,  except  one  old  horse  said  to  be  a  Shouey-man  from  Nablous. 
The  best  were  four  white  barbs  from  the  province  of  Oran,  thick  set, 
short  legged,  which  would  be  handsome  if  they  had  less  drooping 
quarters.  The  native  Tunisians  unfit  to  breed  from  in  any  country. 

"  $oth  Oct. —  Started  with  Terence  for  Kerouan  by  road  with  four 
horses  abreast  in  a  landau,  very  like  the  old  vetturino  travelling  in 
Italy  of  fifty  years  ago,  very  slow  but  pleasant  in  fine  weather.  We 
rested  two  hours  at  midday  on  the  road  under  a  Carob  tree,  and  stopped 
for  the  night  at  a  fondouk,  a  clean  airy  place  the  property  of  a  Sherifa, 
a  widow  of  Tunis,  whose  husband  built  it  as  a  speculation  forty  years 


1894]  With  Terence  to  Kerouan  157 

ago.  It  used  to  be  a  paying  concern,  but  the  new  diligence  service  has 
spoiled  its  trade,  the  respectable  keeper  of  it  told  us.  These  fondouks 
are  like  the  khans  in  Turkey,  a  number  of  little  empty  rooms  paved 
with  tiles,  where  the  traveller  pays  a  few  piastres  for  his  night's  lodg- 
ing and  provides  his  own  food.  We  paid  five  francs,  which  included 
a  franc  for  stabling.  I  should  be  glad  to  be  always  as  well  lodged  in 
Europe.  The  road  passes  over  a  series  of  plains,  partly  cultivated  in 
the  summer,  but  all  bare  now,  the  hills  beyond  very  beautiful. 

"  $ist  Oct. —  Another  long  drive,  crossing  the  Enfida  estate.  This 
caused  at  one  time  a  political  question  between  England  and  France, 
the  facts  of  the  case  being  these:  Kheireddin  Pasha  (the  same  who  was 
afterwards  Grand  Vizier  at  Constantinople)  having  got  together  this 
immense  property  sold  it  to  a  French  land  company,  whereupon  a  right 
of  pre-emption  was  claimed  by  a  Jew,  a  protected  British  subject,  as 
neighbouring  proprietor.  It  was  before  the  French  Occupation,  and 
both  governments  backed  their  own  clients  for  political  reasons.  The 
Jew's  claim,  however,  was  a  rather  doubtful  one,  and  as  the  French 
company  gave  more  than  the  land  was  worth,  he  was  in  fact  no  loser, 
and  the  British  Government  gave  way.  The  estate  consists  of  a  vast 
tract  of  plain,  most  of  it  capable  of  cultivation,  but  exposed  to  the 
south  winds.  The  company  has  planted  many  hundreds  of  acres  with 
vines,  but  on  the  whole  Terence  says  it  does  not  pay.  The  high  road 
passes  for  several  miles  through  it,  and  through  the  chief  farming  es- 
tablishment of  which  they  are  trying  to  make  a  town  of  the  usual 
French  kind,  with  poplars  and  eucalyptus  trees. 

"  Beyond  this  there  is  nothing  more  in  the  shape  of  a  house  until 
one  gets  to  Kerouan.  We  were  so  pleased  with  our  night  at  the  fondouk 
that  we  determined  to  go  to  another  at  Kerouan  instead  of  to  the 
French  Hotel.  (We  were  both  travelling  in  Eastern  dress.)  And  so 
after  some  wandering  in  the  streets,  it  being  already  dark,  we  have 
taken  up  our  quarters  at  a  house  of  reception,  which  is  entirely  Arab, 
and  entirely  Moslem,  about  the  centre  of  the  town.  It  is  an  okcilah 
or  lodging  house,  where  merchants  hire  rooms  by  the  month  in  which 
to  deposit  their  goods  and  sleep.  We  pass  in  it  for  an  Indian  Moslem 
merchant  and  his  friend,  a  Syrian,  from  Damascus. 

"  ist  Nov. —  The  okeilah  is  a  poor  place.  We  have  one  little  room 
between  us  like  a  prison  cell,  opening  on  to  a  balcony  which  runs  round 
the  inner  court,  open  at  the  top.  It  is  dirty  and  bug  ridden,  but  decent 
and  essentially  Oriental.  The  proprietor  is  a  respectable  merchant, 
originally  from  Sfax,  who  sits  all  day  in  a  room  on  the  ground  floor, 
which  is  his  shop  and  counting-house.  His  trade  is  to  buy  wool  and 
other  desert  produce  from  the  Bedouins,  and  to  sell  them  linen  cloth. 
A  number  of  them  have  been  all  the  morning  in  the  courtyard,  very 
noisy  in  their  bargainings,  most  of  them  of  the  Slasi  tribe  who  have  a 


158  We  Lodge  at  an  Okeilah  [1894 

good  robber  reputation  inherited  from  past  times.  Our  driver,  Rashid, 
pointed  out  to  us  yesterday  the  sandy  passage  in  the  road  where  cara- 
vans used  to  be  attacked  by  them  in  the  good  old  days,  and  even  some- 
times now  of  dark  nights.  This  reminds  me  that  about  ten  miles  from 
the  town  we  came  upon  a  mounted  Arab  who  shouted  to  us  as  he 
passed  that  a  cousin  of  his  had  just  been  killed  upon  the  road,  and  he 
was  riding  for  help. 

"  The  proprietor  has  a  son,  a  simple-minded  youth  in  a  white  tur- 
ban, who  comes  to  sit  with  us  and  talk,  and  there  are  two  servants, 
one  a  merry  man  who  makes  coffee  at  the  door,  the  other  a  vague  old 
mendicant  who  occasionally  sweeps  out  the  rooms,  and  goes  on  errands. 
Both  these  are  hashish  smokers  openly,  for  at  Kerouan  there  is  no 
shame  in  the  drug,  and  Terence,  who  went  down  to  spend  the  evening 
below  after  I  had  gone  to  sleep,  tells  me  the  kawaji  was  most  amusing, 
indeed  they  were  all  in  roars  of  laughter  through  the  night. 

"  Terence  is  incomparable  as  a  traveller  for  he  has  the  readiest  pos- 
sible wit  and  a  pleasant  word  for  everyone,  and  wherever  he  goes  smiles 
break  forth,  and  a  kindly  feeling  of  goodwill  from  man  and  maid. 
He  also  is  an  admirable  cook,  and  with  Saleh  his  servant,  has  given  us 
excellent  dishes  stewed  over  a  spirit  lamp.  He  can  sleep  anywhere, 
and  all  day  long,  and  never  is  put  out,  or  bored,  or  in  a  hurry,  withal 
of  an  exceeding  good  sense  and  knowledge  of  the  proportion  of  things, 
prudent,  economical,  persistent,  the  reverse  in  fact  of  all  that  dis- 
tinguishes Europeans  in  the  East,  and  astounding  at  his  age  (twenty- 
four). 

"  We  went  out  last  night  in  the  streets,  and  again  this  morning,  and 
I  think  that  no  one  suspects  us  of  a  disguise,  though  they  are  somewhat 
puzzled  at  our  affairs.  We  went  to  the  Mosques  directly  after  break- 
fast, first  to  Sidi  Okba's  of  which  we  entered  the  outer  court  only,  for 
the  inner  shrine  was  being  repaired,  and  a  surly  guardian  refused  us 
entrance,  saying  that  without  order  from  Sidna  el  Morakeb  the  doors 
could  not  be  opened,  so  we  had  to  be  content  with  peeping  in  and 
complaining  of  the  tyranny.  We  saw,  however,  pretty  nearly  all  there 
was  to  be  seen  before  we  were  turned  out.  At  the  other  Mosque 
outside  the  town  we  were  more  fortunate.  Here  we  were  admitted, 
and  saw  all,  and  made  our  devotions  at  the  tomb  of  Sidi  Sahabi  un- 
questioned. It  was  very  hot  all  day,  and  we  lay  stewing  in  the  balcony 
of  the  okeilah  till  the  asr  and  playing  chess,  to  the  wonder  of  the 
proprietor's  son,  whom  we  told  it  was  an  Indian  game.  Then  we  went 
through  the  bazaars  and  outside  the  town  to  see  the  walls,  all  very 
interesting,  and  as  yet  little  spoilt  by  the  French  invasion,  and  spent 
the  evening  on  mats  under  the  city  walls,  where  there  was  an  Arab 
coffee  house,  drinking  lemonade,  and  so  the  long  day  ended. 

"2nd  Nov. —  This  morning,  being  Friday,  the  Mueddhin  chaunted 


1894]  From  Kerouan  to  Sus  159 

the  whole  prayer  from  the  Minarets  —  and  there  is  one  just  outside  the 
okeilah  —  beginning  at  four  and  going  on  more  than  half  an  hour,  a 
fine  old-world  ceremony,  disappearing  alas  from  Islam.  Kerouan, 
however,  is  a  holy  city,  and  preserves  some  at  least  of  its  traditions. 
We  were  up  with  the  first  light,  and  having  drunk  coffee  prepared  for 
us  by  our  friend  the  hashishi,  and  induced  his  old  companion  to  carry 
our  baggage,  which  he  did  with  great  unwillingness  for  he  was  still 
drowsy  with  his  opium,  and  paid  our  two  nights'  score  at  the  okeilah, 
three  francs  and  a  few  coppers  —  it  would  have  been  the  same  if  we 
had  taken  our  rooms  for  a  month,  and  the  proprietor  was  too  sleepy 
to  get  up  and  see  to  it  —  we  went  out  through  the  half  awake  streets 
to  the  Eastern  gate,  and  the  office  of  the  new  tramway,  where  we 
waited  an  hour  and  saw  the  sun  rise.  Terence  employed  the  time  re- 
peating to  me  a  story  told  in  the  okeilah  by  the  merchant  of  Sfax,  which 
is  as  good  as  most  in  the  Arabian  Nights.  (It  is  too  long  to  insert 
here,  and  I  reserve  it  for  another  occasion.)  Then  we  took  our  places 
in  the  tram,  and  went  at  a  fine  gallop  across  the  desolate  plains  in  four 
hours  to  the  sea  at  Sus,  where  we  once  more  put  off  our  Moslem  gar- 
ments and  washed  and  dined  at  a  Prankish  restaurant.  The  tram  jour- 
ney between  Kerouan  and  Sus  is  a  curious  mixture  of  old  and  new. 
The  coach  runs  on  rails  laid  across  the  open  fields,  drawn  by  horses 
running  beside  it  with  a  long  loose  trace,  so  that  when  it  crosses  ravines 
the  horses  gallop  beside  it  up  and  down  the  steep  places  without  check- 
ing their  pace.  The  track  is  all  more  or  less  down  hill,  so  that  once 
started  the  coach  goes  by  its  own  weight,  and  the  horses  have  all  they 
can  do  to  keep  up  with  it  in  certain  places,  not  being  harnessed  to  any 
pole,  the  only  check  on  the  coach  being  a  brake  worked  by  the  con- 
ductor in  the  steepest  parts,  a  most  exhilarating  way  of  travelling,  and 
quite  practical  for  that  particular  journey. 

"  Sus  is  a  lovely  old  battlemented  town  as  yet  little  spoilt,  though 
the  usual  obscene  French  houses  are  springing  up  outside  it.  I  walked 
all  over  and  around  it  and  through  its  bazaars.  There  is  a  fine  citadel 
commanding  the  town  on  which  a  French  flag  is  hanging  half-mast 
high.  The  Emperor  of  Russia  is  dead. 

"  Here  we  both  took  ship,  Terence  to  return  to  Tunis,  I  to  go  on 
to  Tripoli,  touching  at  Monastir  and  Mehadir,  two  lovely  mediaeval 
strongholds  by  the  sea.  In  the  latter  I  had  the  good  luck  to  make  a 
friend.  Seeing  a  nice  clean  Arab  coffee-house  in  front  of  the  mosque. 
I  sat  down  in  it  at  the  same  time  with  a  respectable  Bedouin,  whom  I 
saluted.  He  ordered  at  once  two  cups  of  coffee,  and  we  talked  and 
made  friends,  he  in  good  Arabic,  a  very  worthy  man,  living,  he  told 
me,  some  ten  miles  from  the  town,  and  he  has  promised,  if  he  passes 
through  Egypt  next  year  on  the  pilgrimage,  to  alight  at  Sheykh  Obeyd. 
I  have  seldom  met  a  better  bred  or  more  kindly  man.  At  Sfax,  where 


160  An  Adventure  at  Sfax  [1894 

we  arrived  at  daylight  next  morning,  4th  Nov.,  I  had  an  odd  adven- 
ture. Having  made  acquaintance  with  a  respectable  looking  man  in  the 
boat  which  took  us  to  the  shore,  I  was  glad  to  accept  his  invitation  that 
he  should  show  me  round  the  town,  which  he  did  with  all  politeness, 
and  then  invited  me  to  his  house.  This  was  in  a  by  street  of  no  very 
reputable  appearance,  the  entrance  being  by  a  low  door  where  a  donkey 
stood  tied,  and  on  entering  I  saw  at  once  that  it  was  no  Moslem  house, 
as  I  had  supposed  my  friend  to  be,  for  there  were  women  there  un- 
veiled, and  it  flashed  on  me  what  was  the  truth,  that  they  were  Jews. 
This  became  clearly  the  case  when  they  set  a  meal  of  greasy  bread 
before  me,  and  tried  to  make  me  drink  absinthe,  and  I  had  some  dif- 
ficulty in  finding  excuse  to  get  away  and  to  explain  that  I  was  not 
myself  a  Jew,  for  my  conductor  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  I 
must  be  one,  for  'my  having  condescended  to  speak  to  him  and  enter 
his  house,  for  in  these  North  African  towns  the  Jews  are  treated  as 
pariahs  by  the  Mohammedans,  and  he  did  not  understand  it  as  possible 
that  I  could  be  other  than  one  of  his  own  nation  treating  him  with  the 
politeness  I  had  shown.  It  is  no  less  characteristic  of  the  position 
Jews  hold  in  Tunis  that  as  soon  as  I  had  explained  to  him  the  mistake 
he  had  made,  his  manner  at  once  became  changed  from  one  of  hos- 
pitable anxiety  to  please,  to  one  of  undignified  begging  for  a  bakshish, 
which  I  was  of  course  only  to  glad  to  give,  feeling  that  the  fault  had 
been  mine. 

"  Sfax  is  an  interesting,  and  except  for  the  Jew  quarter,  a  wholly 
Moslem  town,  inhabited  mostly  by  Sherifs,  every  other  man  wearing 
the  green  turban.  It  was  bombarded  and  barbarously  treated  by  the 
French  in  1881.  The  captain  of  our  steamer,  the  Ville  de  Tunis,  tells 
me  that  this  was  in  some  measure  a  mistake.  When  the  town  was 
summoned  by  the  French  fleet  to  capitulate,  it  happened  that,  being 
the  1 4th  of  July,  in  the  interval  before  the  answer  was  received,  a 
salute  was  fired  in  honour  of  the  day,  and  the  people  of  Sfax,  think- 
ing it  an  attack  and  that  the  shots  had  fallen  short  of  the  town, 
refused  terms  of  unconditional  surrender  offered  to  them.  The  town 
was  then  bombarded  in  earnest,  two  breaches  were  made  in  the  walls, 
and  the  place  was  stormed.  The  French  lost  700  men  and  gave  the 
Moslem  quarter  over  to  sack  for  twelve  hours  (this  the  captain  denies, 
but  it  is  historical),  during  which  the  houses  were  broken  into  and 
the  women  ravished;  the  broken  doors  were  long  left  unmended  in 
token  against  them,  and  I  noticed  when  I  walked  through  the  Moslem 
quarter  in  the  morning  that  many  doors  showed  new  locks  recently  put 
in  and  new  panels  not  yet  painted.  The  city  walls  have  been  mended, 
but  the  town  inside  and  the  bazaars  look  poor  compared  with  Sus. 
The  wealth  of  the  town  lies  outside  in  the  gardens,  several  hundreds 
of  which  surround  it,  all  belonging  to  the  Moslem  inhabitants.  The 


1894]  The  Gabez  Oasis  161 

French  colonists  have  tried  to  buy  them  out  but  they  will  not  go.  There 
is  a  bitter  feeling  here  against  the  conquerors.  According  to  my 
Jew  acquaintance,  Braham  ben  Gabrail  Mazuz,  there  are  a  thousand 
houses  of  Jews  in  Sfax,  probably  an  exaggeration.  These  are  di- 
vided in  opinion  about  the  French  occupation,  but  most  are  in  favour  of 
it,  as  they  were  badly  treated  by  the  Moors.  They  are  mostly  very 
poor,  the  richer  ones  doing  trade  as  middle  men  between  the  Moors 
and  Franks.  Young  Braham  came  on  board  again  to  wish  me  good- 
bye, and  brought  some  cake  and  roast  chestnuts  and  bread  for  me,  but 
he  could  not  resist  asking  me  for  the  fare  of  the  steam  launch  he  had 
taken  passage  in  from  the  shore,  and  a  franc  over. 

"  Our  party  on  board  is  reduced  to  the  captain,  the  doctor,  and  two 
cabin  passengers,  so  I  have  the  ship  practically  to  myself.  There  are 
very  few  European  colonists  in  these  parts  except  trie  small  population 
of  drink  sellers  and  restaurateurs.  The  Arabs  refuse  to  sell  their  good 
lands,  and  the  bad  are  not  worth  buying,  nor  has  the  French  Govern- 
ment yet  found  an  excuse  in  rebellion  to  confiscate  these  as  has  been 
done  in  Algeria.  The  taxes  are  low,  no  land  tax  in  coin  but  the  old 
tenth  of  the  gross  produce  and  a  poll  tax  of,  I  think,  twenty-five  francs 
levied  on  rich  and  poor.  This  last  presses  on  the  poor  and  causes  dis- 
content because  in  the  old  time  it  was  not  levied  in  extreme  cases  of 
poverty,  whereas  now  under  the  French  no  one  is  exempt.  Civilized 
governments  always  commit  this  injustice  in  Eastern  lands,  falsely 
pleading  immemorial  custom. 

"  $th  Nov. —  Arrived  by  daylight  at  Gabez,  a  palm  oasis  watered  by 
a  small  river  which  rises  some  five  miles  inland,  they  say  in  several 
hundred  springs.  This  feeds  the  gardens,  the  rest  of  the  country 
being  desert.  I  found  a  ramshackle  carriage  with  an  Arab  driver 
from  Tripoli,  who  took  me  round  and  explained  everything.  There 
are  but  few  Europeans  here,  some  warehouses  on  the  shore  but  nothing 
inland.  The  native  population  is  Arab,  not  Berber.  Under  conduct 
of  my  Tripoli  driver  I  visited  the  barrage,  where  there  is  a  run  of 
water  about  the  size  of  our  Mole  at  Leatherhead,  much  overgrown  with 
reeds  and  weeds,  an  oozy  unwholesome  haunt  of  frogs  and  snakes. 
Then  to  the  mosque  and  tomb  of  Abdul  Barber,  a  pretty  place  on  a 
hill,  and  so  round.  There  was  a  tame  gazelle  running  in  the  desert 
outside  the  villages,  for  there  is  no  town  of  Gabez.  My  driver  told 
me  that  before  the  French  occupation  this  was  a  dangerous  neighbour- 
hood, as  the  Bedouins  were  always  marauding.  There  is  a  certain 
trade  here  of  halfa  grass,  which  they  bring  from  two  or  three  days' 
journey  inland,  worth,  my  driver  said,  five  francs  the  camel  load. 

"  We  left  at  noon  and  arrived  at  sunset  off  Jerba,  a  long,  low  island, 
wooded  with  olives  and  palms,  the  water  so  shallow  that  our  steamer 
had  to  lie  six  miles  from  shore,  so  that  we  only  saw  it  as  an  outline 


1 62  Tripoli  [1894 

on  the  horizon.  This  they  say  is  Calypso's  Island,  a  dreamy  afternoon 
place,  lying  sweltering  in  a  stagnant  sea. 

"  6th  Nov. —  Tripoli.  A  lovely  white  town  with  walls  and  minarets 
and  an  immense  growth  of  palms.  Here  there  is  a  natural  port  which 
could  be  improved  if  the  Turkish  Government  would  allow  Europeans 
a  concession  to  do  it,  but  it  wisely  refuses,  knowing  the  consequences. 
The  foreign  population  consists  of  some  6,000  or  7,000  Maltese  and 
Italians.  There  are  many  Jews,  and  a  large  population  of  Moslems, 
mostly  of  Arab  race,  manly  and  fanatical.  The  Tripolitans  are  not 
subject  to  conscription  for  the  Ottoman  army,  but  form  a  kind  of 
militia  having  obtained  certain  terms  of  independence  when  the  Sultan 
took  possession,  in  return  for  their  support  given  against  the  Bey. 

"  The  palm  gardens,  which  extend  for  ten  miles,  are  wholly  in  their 
hands,  and  Europeans  are  discouraged,  if  not  forbidden,  from  living 
outside  the  town.  Beyond  the  gardens  all  is  a  sandy  desert,  and  the 
general  character  of  the  place  is  like  our  own  palm  district  at  Sheykh 
Obeyd.  I  called  at  the  British  Consulate,  and  found  my  old  friend 
Jago  officially  there,  who  sent  his  son  with  me  in  a  covered  cart 
through  the  palm  groves  and  to  the  desert  beyond.  We  stopped  to 
see  the  Wali's  garden,  newly  reclaimed  from  the  sand.  It  has  all  the 
feature  of  our  own  garden  in  Egypt,  but  without  the  lebbek  trees. 
He  is  making  a  number  of  such  gardens,  using  the  soldiers  to  do  the 
labour  as  is  the  way  in  Turkey.  Then  to  a  place  they  call  the  Hahneh, 
which  is  a  bit  of  high,  stony  ground  kept  bare  for  the  purpose 
of  assemblies  and  festivities  in  the  centre  of  the  palm  gardens. 
From  it  one  sees  nothing  but  palm  tops  all  round."  [The 
palm  district  here  described  was  the  scene  in  1911  of  the 
abominable  atrocities  committed  by  the  Italian  soldiery  when, 
in  defiance  of  all  right  or  even  pretext,  they  made  their  raid  on 
Tripoli,  and  massacred  the  Arabs  of  the  oasis.]  "  Then  to  the  Suk 
el  Jumaa,  and  the  Suk  el  Thalatha  held  on  the  seashore.  Here  we 
found  a  great  concourse  of  Arabs  with  camels,  horses,  asses,  and 
cows  for  sale,  several  thousands  of  them  on  the  beach.  Some  had 
brought  a  load  of  Haifa,  others  sheep,  others  woollen  shawls.  I  bought 
a  grey  and  white  shawl  for  fifteen  francs,  more  than  their  market 
value,  though  really  beautifully  pieces,  like  the  best  Scotch  or  Irish 
homespun,  only  better.  I  should  say  a  good  trade  might  be  made  by 
importing  these  to  England. 

"  After  this  we  went  back  to  a  midday  meal  at  the  Consulate,  a  good 
old  Moorish  house,  but  standing  unfortunately  in  the  Maltese  quarter, 
which  is  noisy  and  filthy  in  the  extreme,  contrasting  with  the  Moslem 
quarters,  which  are  clean,  silent  and  decorous.  The  Turks  keep  about 
6,000  regular  soldiers  in  Tripoli,  but  count  the  native  militia  at  as 
many  more.  They  have  Mudirs  and  Kaimakams  in  the  principal 


1894]  Malta  and  Count  Strickland  163 

towns  inland  as  far  as  Ghadames,  but  the  policing  of  the  country 
district  is  done  by  the  Arabs.  They  say  these  inland  districts  are  fairly 
secure  for  native  travellers,  but  a  great  caravan,  which  started  for 
Wadai  in  the  far  south  two  years  ago  with  £40,000  worth  of  goods, 
was  plundered  there  by  Rabagh  Ibn  Zebeyr  when  he  attacked  Wadai 
last  year,  and  none  of  the  merchants  have  yet  returned.  This  has 
caused  great  lamentation  and  distress  in  Tripoli. 

"  We  weighed  anchor  in  the  afternoon  for  Malta,  there  being  no 
direct  steam  communication  between  Tripoli  and  Egypt. 

"  jth  November. —  We  arrived  off  Malta  by  daylight,  and  got  inside 
Che  harbor  at  Valetta  by  nine  o'clock,  certainly  a  splendid  place.  I 
called  at  once  on  Count  Strickland,  to  whom  Terence  had  given  me  a 
letter.  I  was  surprised  to  find  him  quite  a  young  man,  he  is  thirty- 
four,  and  he  reminded  me  that  we  had  met  already  at  Cambridge,  when 
he  was  an  undergraduate  and  one  of  the  chief  officials  of  the  Union 
and  I  was  down  there  with  John  Dillon  only  seven  years  ago ;  now  he  has 
been  for  six  years  secretary  to  the  Malta  Government,  a  post  of  no 
small  political  importance,  he  being  half  a  Maltese,  through  his  mother, 
a  Countess  della  Catena,  and  having  married  De  la  Warr's  eldest 
daughter,  Lady  Edeline  Sackville.  I  found  him  very  busy  preparing 
for  a  debate  on  the  estimates  in  the  Maltese  Legislative  Council,  an 
annual  event,  the  principal  political  one  of  the  year. 

"  The  Council  was  to  meet  at  half-past  two,  and  he  took  me  there 
with  him  to  attend  the  debate,  an  interesting  display.  The  Governor, 
Sir  Arthur  Freemantle,  was  in  the  chair,  the  six  official  members  to 
his  left,  the  fourteen  elected  members  to  his  right,  three  or  four  benches 
at  the  end  of  the  chamber  being  for  the  public.  I  was  given  an  arm- 
chair behind  the  Governor's.  The  Council  Chamber  is  a  splendid  room, 
and  the  ceremonial  was  dignified,  but  with  a  certain  air  of  unreality 
as  in  a  debating  club,  though  it  was  an  important  occasion,  for  politics 
are  running  high  in  Malta  just  now.  The  leader  of  the  opposition, 
Savona,  is  a  man  of  about  fifty,  keen-eyed,  alert,  professional,  remind- 
ing me  a  little  of  Freycinet.  He  knows  English  well,  and  made  his 
attacks  sometimes  in  English,  sometimes  in  Italian,  for  both  languages 
are  used  optionally,  the  more  animated  speeches  being  in  Italian. 
There  seemed  to  be  a  very  full  liberty  of  speech,  but  no  applause  or 
dissent  of  the  kind  that  makes  our  House  of  Commons  a  babel.  To 
me  it  was  most  interesting,  as  the  questions  treated  turned  on  Consti- 
tutional right,  and  were  dealt  with  ably  and  with  passion.  Savona  on 
some  previous  occasion  had  been  taunted  by  an  official  member  with 
having  allowed  the  Estimates  to  pass  untouched,  and  he  was  determined 
now  to  reduce  this  year's  on  certain  points  in  protest  against  an  in- 
fringement mad*1  three  years  before  by  an  order  of  the  Colonial  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Maltese  Constitution.  Elected  members  had  been  de- 


164  The  Maltese  Parliament  [1894 

prived  of  their  right  to  become  members  of  the  Executive.  Strick- 
land replied  in  an  able,  debating  speech,  but  without,  as  I  thought,  hav- 
ing the  better  argument,  or  commanding  the  sense  of  the  Council. 
One  of  Savona's  proposed  reductions  was  of  £10  for  the  repainting  of 
the  Government  barge,  and  this  he  made  fun  of.  He  found,  however, 
support  on  the  point  in  one  of  the  elected  members,  Mozu,  and  Savona 
lost  the  amendment,  though  he  carried  another  reducing  the  vote  by 
£266  in  regard  to  other  items.  Freemantle  then  retired,  and  a  rather 
noisy  discussion  followed  about  his  successor  in  the  chair,  during 
which,  as  it  was  late,  I  too  went  out.  On  the  whole  I  was  pleased  with 
the  debate,  which  was  ably  conducted  by  the  opposition,  there  being 
but  one  very  foolish  speaker,  a  deaf  old  man,  who  talked  nonsense  about 
i  poveri  Maltesi  in  and  out  of  season.  There  was  certainly  more  reality 
in  it  than  in  the  Viceregal  Council  meetings  I  attended  at  Calcutta,  and 
must  do  good  as  putting  a  check  on  the  Government's  autocratic 
vagaries,  if  nothing  more. 

"  Dined  with  young  Sitwell  of  the  Rifles  at  the  Club,  and  was  glad 
to  find  him  talking  sensibly  about  the  exclusion  of  the  Maltese  nobility 
from  its  membership.  This  is  a  notorious  scandal  and  cause  of  ill- 
feeling.  Looking  through  the  Club  list  I  can  find  no  more  than  two 
Maltese  names  among  the  English  ones,  Strickland's  and  Dingli's.  The 
tone  of  English  society  here,  Sitwell  tells  me,  is  violent  about  the  Mal- 
tese and  absurd.  He  and  his  regiment  are  off  next  week  for  Bombay, 
where  he  will  find  race  arrogance  more  violent  still. 

"  8th  Nov. —  Drove  across  the  island  through  a  series  of  lovely  vil- 
lages, all  of  hewn  stone,  to  Hajar  Kim,  where  there  is  an  ancient 
temple  of  the  Druidical  kind,  then  with  Strickland  to  his  country  house, 
on  the  way  to  Citta  Vecchia,  a  fine  villa  of  the  beginning  of  last 
century,  with  courts  and  fountains  and  an  orange  garden.  This  he 
inherits  from  his  mother.  He  tells  me  there  are  about  twelve  families 
in  the  island  which  enjoy  a  majorat,  his  being  one,  in  the  rest  property 
has  been  divided  among  all  the  children,  and  so  has  disappeared.  This 
dates  from  the  time  of  the  knights.  When  the  island  was  given  to  the 
Knights  of  St.  John  in  1530  by  Charles  V  a  proviso  was  made  that  it 
should  revert  to  the  Crown ;  consequently,  when  the  English  first  occu- 
pied Malta  it  was  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Naples  that  they  did  so. 
The  French  knights  had  betrayed  the  island  to  Bonaparte,  who  took 
possession  of  it  as  part  of  the  French  Republic,  ill-treated  the  inhabi- 
tants, robbed  the  churches,  and  speedily  made  the  French  detested. 
The  Maltese  rose  against  them  and  invested  the  fortress  for  eighteen 
months  and  forced  a  capitulation  which  the  French  made,  not  to 
them  but  to  Nelson  —  the  annexation  to  England  was  an  after- 
thought. 

"  Strickland  explained  Savona's  attitude  of  opposition  as  one  caused 


1894]  Savona  the  Nationalist  Leader  165 

by  disappointment.  Savona  began  life  as  a  soldier  in  the  hospital 
corps,  but  having  learned  English  he  bought  his  discharge,  set  up  a 
school  and  newspaper,  and  attacked  the  Government.  He  was  then 
taken  in  the  Government  to  keep  him  quiet,  but  left  it  when  the  Con- 
stitution of  1887  1  was  granted,  he  having  opposed  it  and  recorded  in 
a  minute  his  view  that  Malta  should  be  governed  as  a  Crown  Colony 
of  a  severe  type.  This  minute  was  thrown  in  his  teeth  when  he 
seceded  from  the  Government  and  set  up  as  its  violent  antagonist. 
Strickland,  of  course,  is  officially  prejudiced  against  him,  and  will  not 
see  in  him  any  patriotic  motive,  but.  he  admits  that  public  opinion 
generally  is  anti-English  among  the  educated  Maltese,  while 'the  coun- 
try people  are  indifferent.  Savona,  he  assures  me,  is  losing  his  popu- 
larity, but  he,  Strickland,  is  tired  of  the  worry  and  would  be  glad  to 
change  his  chief  secretaryship  for  a  Colonial  appointment.  I  find  him 
clever  and  interesting. 

"  gth  Nov. —  Left  Malta  for  Egypt  via  Brindisi." 

The  winter  that  followed  that  year  and  the  following  spring  in 
Egypt  was  one  that  has  left  me  few  political  records,  the  new  National 
movement  headed  the  last  two  years  by  the  Khedive  Abbas  having  lost 
its  first  impulse  through  the  reasons  I  have  already  described,  and  I 
stood  aside  busying  myself  with  other  things,  and  beyond  a  single 
visit  to  the  Khedive  at  Abdin  Palace,  my  diary  contains  little  worth 
transcribing.  I  arrived  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  on  i$th  Nov.  and  found 
Anne  and  Judith  already  there,  and  on  the  2ist  Fen  wick  Pasha,  who 
for  the  last  two  years  has  been  English  adviser  at  the  Home  Office  and 
head  of  the  police,  called  on  me.  He  had,  compared  with  most  Eng- 
lishmen, been  favourable  to  native  self-government,  and  under  the  new 
regime  had  become  out  of  favour  : 

"  Fenwick  leaves  Egypt  immediately  to  join  his  regiment  in  India. 
He  spoke  strongly  and  rather  bitterly  of  the  recent  change  in  the  ad- 
ministration which  has  put  the  police  once  more  under  the  Mudirs, 
and  thinks  it  quite  uncompensated  by  the  appointment  of  Gorst  as 
English  Adviser  at  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior.  He  thinks  Cromer 
may  have  yielded  the  point  from  a  Macchiavellian  motive  of  allowing 
the  native  Government  to  make  mistakes  of  which  he  will  profit  later, 
but  I  do  not  think  this. 

"  2f)th  Nov. —  To-day  being  the  Khedive's  birthday  and  a  whole 
holiday,  Tigrane  Pasha  came  to  see  us;  he  is  down  on  his  luck  politi- 

1  Malta  had  been  granted  a  Constitution  of  very  restricted  type  by  tlie  Eng- 
lish Government  in  1887,  avowedly  as  an  experiment,  with  the  result  that  many 
abuses  in  the  government  of  the  island  were  remedied;  but  a  strong  movement 
having  been  set  on  foot  by  the  native  Maltese  for  union  with  the  Italian  king- 
dom the  Constitution  was  subsequently  withdrawn. 


166  Again  »n  Egypt  [1894 

cally  and  looks  at  things  as  going  badly,  regarding  Gorst's  appointment 
to  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  as  a  new  encroachment. 

"  y>th  Nov. —  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu  to  lunch  with  us.  He  tells 
me  the  Khedive's  ideas  are  unchanged  since  last  year,  that  he  is  still 
bitter  against  Cromer  and  the  Occupation,  that  his  visit  to  England 
was  prevented  last  summer  by  the  Sultan,  and  much  else.  The  Khe- 
dive is  very  kind  to  him,  Abdu,  now,  and  gave  him  a  private  audience 
of  thirty-five  minutes,  and  he  has  obtained  his  long-wished  for  grant 
of  £2,000  a  year  for  the  Azhar  University.  A  committee  is  to  be 
appointed  to  see  to  the  spending  of  the  sum.  We  talked  over  old 
events  and  he  gave  me  again  the  history  of  the  Mufettish  Ismail  Sadyk's 
murder  by  Ishak  Bey  on  board  the  Khedive's  steamer.  Ishak  strangled 
him  with  his  own  hands.  He  says  this  was  certainly  done  on  the  river, 
immediately  after  Ismail  Sadyk's  arrest  by  the  Khedive  Ismail 
opposite  the  Jesireh  palace.  He  told  us  the  story  of  AH  Pasha  Sherif's 
slavery  adventure.  Ali  Pasha  Sherif  had  been  recently  arrested  by 
our  people  on  a  charge  of  slave  dealing,  he  being  the  oldest  and  most 
respectable  personage  perhaps  in  Egypt,  and  President  of  the  Legisla- 
tive Council.  The  Pasha  had  behaved  very  foolishly,  Abdu  said, 
'  like  a  child.'  The  truth  was  he  is  in  his  dotage  and  has  become 
foolishly  attached  to  a  woman  on  whom  he  spends  his  time  and  money, 
and  it  was  for  her  that  he  had  bought  the  slaves,  and  he  told  us  also 
of  Nubar's  moneymaking  schemes  now  he  is  in  office,  and  of  other 
scandals  that  have  taken  place  during  the  summer. 

"  $th  Dec. —  Had  luncheon  with  Riaz.  He  tells  me  the  Khedive's 
politics  have  not  changed  at  all  since  last  year.  He  (Abbas)  hates 
Nubar,  and  is  sorry  now,  '  poor  young  man,'  for  the  mistake  he  made 
in  allowing  Cromer  to  change  his  Ministry.  He  would  have  gone 
to  England  in  the  summer,  but  was  prevented  by  a  French  intrigue 
acting  on  the  Sultan.  He  lamented  the  usurpation  of  new  authority 
by  Lord  Cromer  in  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior,  etc.,  etc. 

"  loth  Dec . —  Saw  the  Khedive  at  Abdin  Palace.  He  received  me 
cordially,  even  affectionately,  and  on  my  congratulating  him  on  a 
domestic  event  expected  in  his  family,  and  which  had  been  announced, 
said :  '  Yes,  it  came  upon  us  quite  as  a  surprise.  Now  I  shall  marry 
her.  I  wished  to  do  so  once,  but  when  I  consulted  our  religious  au- 
thorities they  told  me  I  must  wait  till  the  child  was  born.  But  I  will 
marry  her  the  very  day  afterwards,  this  is  according  to  rule.'  I  said : 
'  There  was  no  pleasure  in  life  like  that  of  being  a  father,  and  hoped 
that  his  son  would  be  a  blessing  to  him.'  He  is  evidently  in  the  high- 
est delight.  Then  he  talked  of  his  journey  to  Europe,  and  thanked 
me  for  my  letter  about  the  Prince  of  Wales.  '  I  should  have  liked  to 
go  to  England,'  he  said,  '  but  was  prevented  at  Constantinople.  It  is 
impossible  to  do  anything  with  him  (meaning  the  Sultan).  Will  you 


[1894  A  Talk  with  the  Khedive  167 

believe  it,  I  was  twenty  days  at  Constantinople,  and  was  watched  all 
the  time  by  spies.  He  gave  me  two  of  his  aides-de-camp,  who  were 
constantly  with  me,  even  sleeping  in  my  palace  at  night.  Not  once  did 
he  discuss  any  political  subject  with  me,  though  I  several  times  brought 
them  forward  when  we  were  alone.  Each  time  I  did  so  he  jumped 
up  and  shut  the  windows,  lest  we  should  be  overheard,  but  I  could 
get  nothing  from  him.  Even  Mukhtar,  who  was  there  three  months, 
got  no  more  than  a  lecture  for  not  preventing  the  Cairo  newspapers 
from  writing  against  him.  He  told  Mukhtar  to  spend  money  —  he 
might  pay  each  newspaper  £1,500  a  year  —  but  Mukhtar  refused  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  it.  Mukhtar  will  never  be  Grand  Vizier. 
All  who  serve  the  Sultan  are  expected  to  bow  to  the  ground  and  say, 
"  Certainly,  your  Majesty."  We  shall  never  come  to  any  good  with  him 
for  our  Caliph  and  Emir  el  Mumenin.' 

Abbas  asked  me  if  I  had  had  any  news  of  a  new  revolt  in  Arabia,  and 
I  told  him  I  had  seen  paragraphs  in  the  papers  about  it,  but  attached 
little  importance  to  them,  as  such  paragraphs  always  appeared  when 
diplomatic  pressure  was  being  put  at  Constantinople,  and  just  now  the 
Armenian  question  was  being  pushed  forward.  The  new  friendship 
between  England  and  Russia  boded  no  good  for  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
He  said :  '  I  have  information  that  an  agreement  has  been  come  to 
between  them  by  which  Russia  is  to  occupy  Armenia/  This  seems  most 
improbable,  and  with  it  the  abandonment  of  Cyprus  by  us,  as  we  could 
not  consent  to  it  without  retiring  from  the  Cyprus  Convention,  which 
guarantees  the  integrity  of  the  Sultan's  territory  in  Asia.  As  to  his 
visit  to  England  he  said :  '  The  King  of  the  Belgians  invited  me  to 
stay  with  him,  and  I  asked  permission  at  Constantinople,  but  was  told 
I  should  make  pretext  to  decline,  and  avoid  all  visits.'  He  is  evi- 
dently disgusted  with  the  Sultan's  timidity  and  narrow-mindedness, 
but  I  noticed  that  he  never  once  mentioned  him  by  name,  only  as  He. 

"  From  this  we  went  on  to  home  matters,  and  the  way  in  which 
Nubar's  hand  had  been  forced  in  the  matter  of  the  new  arrangement 
at  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior.  Nubar  was  old  and  stupid,  he  said, 
and  had  been  made  to  appear  to  demand  it.  I  am  inclined,  however, 
to  suspect  that  this  was  merely  Nubar's  way  of  excusing  himself 
to  his  master.  About  the  slave-trading  case  brought  against  Ali  Pasha 
Sherif,  the  Khedive  told  me  that  it  was  without  doubt  a  trap  laid  for 
him  by  Shaffer  and  the  Slave  Trade  Bureau.  Dr.  Shafai  was  an  ac- 
complice, and  the  three  slave  women  had  been  taught  their  parts. 
When  Shafai  was  condemned  to  hard  labour  he  was  not  really  sent 
to  Toura  prison,  but  kept  for  a  month  at  the  caracol  in  comfortable 
rooms  upstairs.  He,  the  Khedive,  had  been  asked  to  pardon  him,  but 
had  said  the  law  must  take  its  course.  Then  they  sent  him  to  Toura, 
but  made  him  second  doctor  there.  It  was  all  a  political  intrigue  to 


i68  Convent  of  St.  Anthony 

discredit  AH  Pasha  and  frighten  the  Legislative  Council.  He  com- 
plained of  the  timidity  and  lack  of  fibre  in  the  native  Egyptian  members 
of  the  Council.  '  Look,'  he  said,  '  at  Heshmet  Pasha,  we  all  looked 
upon  him  as  a  Nationalist  and  a  Riazist,  yet  directly  the  trouble  came 
last  year  he  went  round  at  once.'  It  now  being  twelve  o'clock,  after 
a  little  talk  about  Tunis,  the  Khedive  got  up  and,  taking  my  hand  with 
both  his,  thanked  me  and  said  he  knew  I  was  one  he  could  depend  on, 
and  who  had  the  welfare  of  Islam  at  heart.  I  am  more  struck 
than  ever  at  the  frankness  of  his  character  and  the  clearness  of  his 
ideas." 

The  first  three  months  of  the  New  Year,  1895,  were  devoted  by  us 
almost  entirely  to  desert  travelling,  when  we  explored  the  hill  country 
that  lies  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea,  a  piece  of  desert  land  almost 
entirely  unknown  to  Europeans,  or  indeed  to  the  townspeople  of  Cairo 
and  the  fellahin  of  the  Delta,  and  as  yet  unmapped,  to  me  a  great  addi- 
tional charm,  and  except  for  a  few  scattered  Bedouins  quite  unin- 
habited. We  had  on  this  occasion  my  cousin  Mary  Elcho  with  us,  who 
was  spending  the  winter  in  Egypt,  and  we  pushed  our  explorations  as 
far  as  the  Red  Sea,  and  followed  the  coast  line  down  it  between  the 
high  mountain  range  of  Kalala  and  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  a  narrow  strip 
of  sandy  shore  seldom  or  never  visited,  there  being  barely  room  in 
places  for  camels  to  pass,  a  rugged  shore,  where  the  only  sign  of  hu- 
manity is  the  occasional  apparition  of  a  distant  ocean  steamer  far  away 
on  its  road  to  India  or  Japan,  and  at  the  water's  edge  a  continuous 
jetsam  of  empty  brandy  and  rum  bottles  cast  up  by  the  waves,  and 
marking  the  unholy  track  of  Western  civilization.  The  whole  of  the 
precipitous  Kalala  chain,  which  runs  in  places  to  a  height  of  four  and 
five  thousand  feet,  was  in  the  ancient  days  before  Islam  the  scattered 
abode  of  those  early  Christian  hermits  who  were  so  picturesque  a  fea- 
ture of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  and  may  still,  some  of  them,  be 
identified  as  former  hermitages  by  the  possession  of  a  trickle  of  water 
and  a  palm  or  two  still  growing  wild,  and  one  monastery,  still  inhabited, 
the  convent  of  St.  Anthony.  It  lies  in  one  of  the  ruggedest  and  most 
desolate  places  in  the  world,  difficult  of  access  for  camels,  and  parted 
from  the  Nile  Valley  by  eighty  miles  of  inhospitable  desert,  and 
twenty  from  the  seashore  on  the  other  side.  In  all  that  journey  we 
had  met  with  no  inhabitant  after  our  first  day's  march,  and  it  was  with 
some  difficulty  that  we  made  out  our  road  to  it,  for  the  Bedouins  with  us 
had  never  been  there,  and  we  only  had  knowledge  of  it  by  the  vaguest 
hearsay.  The  convent  is  hardly  ever  visited  by  Europeans,  and  ours 
was  absolutely  the  first  occasion  on  which  women  had  been  admitted 
within  the  Monastery  walls  since Jts  foundation  some  1,500  years  ago. 
All  this  was  intensely  interesting,  but  descriptions  of  desert  journeys 
lie  outside  the  scope  of  my  present  memoi's.  It  is  only  here  and  there 


1895]  Death  of  George  Lord  Pembroke  169 

that  in  the  interval  of  these  expeditions  I  find  a  notice  of  public  events, 
as  for  instance : 

"  2$th  Feb. —  The  long  expected  Egyptian  crisis  seems  at  last  ap- 
proaching in  Europe,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  foreign  newspapers 
which  are  threshing  the  question  of  the  English  Occupation  once  more 
out.  I  fancy  Rosebery's  escapade  with  the  Congo  Company  has  set  up 
the  German  Emperor's  back,  and  he  is  encouraging  the  French  to  push 
us  out  of  Egypt.  In  spite  of  our  swagger,  and  it  is  past  all  bounds, 
we  shall  have  one  day  to  go.  Our  papers  repeat  the  bravado  that  a 
great  nation  like  England  does  not  yield  to  threats.  My  experience 
is  that  it  is  to  threats  only  of  very  immediate  chastisement  that  the 
British  public  does  yield.  Soft  words  never  have  effect  with  us." 

About  the  same  time  the  announcement  reached  me  of  poor  Ran- 
dolph's death,  and  on  the  3Oth  of  March  of  Princess  Helene's  engage- 
ment to  the  Duke  of  Aosta,  and  lastly  on  the  nth  of  April  of  the 
huge  scandal  in  London  of  Oscar  Wilde's  arrest  and  prosecution.  Of 
political  events  in  Egypt  there  is  no  further  record  worth  transcribing. 
The  27th  of  April  saw  us  back  at  Crabbet. 

This  year  I  saw  more  than  ever  of  George  Wyndham,  and  spent 
much  of  my  time  with  him.  He  was  at  the  height  just  then  of  his 
literary  activity,  having  become  editor  of  the  "  New  Review,"  and  be- 
ing pushed  forward  by  Henley  as  a  writer,  and  at  his  instigation,  and 
Henley's,  my  thoughts  took  a  more  decidedly  literary  direction  than 
before.  He  proposed  that  I  should  write  for  him  on  Arabian  subjects, 
and  this  I,  being  full  just  then  of  desert  memories,  willingly  agreed  to. 

"  i2th  May. —  Henley  proposes  to  bring  out  a  selected  edition  of 
my  poems  under  his  auspices,  and  promises  to  run  me  into  a  more 
public  place  as  poet  than  what  I  now  occupy.  I  am  not  particularly 
anxious  for  this,  but  he  and  George  may  try.  George  is  a  good  en- 
thusiastic friend,  and  very  dear  to  me.  He  has  given  me  a  touching 
description  of  Pembroke's  funeral,  at  which  he  was  present  in  the 
little  churchyard  near  Wilton,  where  they  buried  him ;  the  Wilton 
gardens  in  their  full  Spring  splendour,  the  birds  singing  their  hearts 
out,  and  many  men,  the  most  distinguished  in  the  land,  in  tears.  Pem- 
broke lived  a  noble,  if  an  unproductive,  life,  a  man  of  large  sympathies 
and  high  ideals,  but  no  fixed  beliefs,  and  no  results  in  action.  He  had 
at  one  time  an  opening  in  politics  which  might  have  led  him  to  any 
sublimity  when  Disraeli  gave  him  a  place  in  his  Government  at  the 
age  of  twenty-four,  but  his  health  was  not  sufficient  for  the  strain,  and 
he  could  not  go  on  with  it.  The  rest  of  his  life  was  spent  at  Wilton, 
a  paradise  on  earth,  the  possession  of  which  I  have  always  thought 
hinders  its  possessors,  by  its  beauty,  from  engaging  in  the  world's  am- 
bitions. He  lived  honoured  and  beloved  by  women  and  by  men. 


170  Death  of  Frederick  Locker  [1895 

"  Sir  Robert  Peel,  too,  is  dead.  I  met  him  on  Friday  at  the  St. 
James'  Club  and  had  a  talk  with  him  about  Japan  and  China.  His 
death  was  sudden  in  the  night.  He  was  not  a  wise  man,  but  interest- 
ing, a  very  good  speaker,  full  of  bonhomie  and  sometimes  of  wit. 

"  2Q//»  May. —  My  poor  Locker  is  dead,  not  other  than  a  worthy  end- 
ing to  a  happy  life.  His  last  day  was  a  cheerful  one  they  all  say,  and 
he  talked  more  strongly  than  for  some  time  past.  I  had  called  in 
the  evening  at  Rowfant  and  had  seen  him,  and  was  there  till  seven, 
and  then  took  his  son  Godfrey  back  riding  with  me,  so  that  he  must 
have  died  very  shortly  afterwards,  for  the  announcement  is  in  the 
'  Times  '  this  morning. 

"  Later.  I  called  again  at  Rowfant  and  found  to  my  surprise  the 
family  not  in  mourning.  My  friend,  instead  of  being  dead,  is  a  trifle 
better,  and  talks  of  outliving  some  of  us.  It  is  a  mystery  how  the 
thing  got  into  the  '  Times,'  from  which  it  had  been  copied  into  all  the 
evening  papers  with  long  obituary  notices.  [It  was  not  till  two  days 
later  that  he  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-four.] 

"  22nd  June. —  Yesterday  when  I  was  in  London  I  called  at  half- 
past  five  on  Margot,  who  is  invalided.  While  we  were  talking  Sir 
William  Harcourt  came  in,  and  their  talk  turned  at  once  to  politics, 
the  Cromwell  statue  debate,  and  other  interests  of  the  moment,  but 
nothing  presaged  what  at  that  very  hour  was  happening  in  the  House, 
namely,  the  defeat  of  the  Ministry  on  St.  John  Broderick's  amendment 
in  Supply.  Poor  Margot,  as  it  happened,  was  in  some  measure  respon- 
sible for  the  Government  minority,  for  as  I  left  her  a  little  after  six 
I  found  yet  another  visitor,  John  Morley,  at  her  door,  and  she  kept 
him  so  late  giving  him  good  advice  that  he  missed  the  division! 
To-day  I  see  the  account  of  it  in  the  papers. 

"  24th  June. —  Rosebery  has  resigned,  a  feeble  statesman  though  a 
clever  man,  whom  we  shall  never,  I  fancy,  see  Prime  Minister  again. 
It  seems  there  is  to  be  a  coalition  between  Lord  Salisbury  and  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire,  under  Lord  Salisbury's  leadership.  I  am  glad 
the  imposture  of  Whig  Liberalism  is  defunct. 

"  Yesterday  was  my  last  day  at  Crabbet,  for  Crabbet  is  let  for  three 
years,  perhaps  for  four,  and  we  take  up  our  abode  at  Newbuildings 
to-morrow.  We  have  no  need,  with  so  small  a  family  as  ours  is,  of 
so  large  a  house,  and  Newbuildings  is  enough  for  all  our  wants,  and 
I  am  in  a  mood  to  loathe  old  things  and  pine  for  new ;  nevertheless, 
it  was  a  melancholy  day  for  me  in  spite  of  the  brave  sun. 

"  2$th  June. —  The  day  of  Princess  Helene's  wedding  to  the  Duke 
of  Aosta.  The  Comtesse  de  Paris  had  sent  us  an  invitation,  and  I  drove 
down  to  Kingston  with  Judith,  where  the  wedding  was,  and  then  to 
Orleans  House  at  Twickenham.  It  was  a  day  of  heaven,  a  brilliant 
blue  sky  with  a  light  north  wind  to  freshen  the  sun's  heat.  Judith,  of 


1895]  Princess  Heine's  Wedding  171 

course,  was  late  at  starting,  and  so  we  arrived  too  late  to  get  inside 
the  church,  and  the  bride  and  bridegroom  were  already  coming  out 
in  procession.  The  Duke  is  under-sized,  of  extremely  dusky  hue, 
his  features  good,  but  not  imposing.  Behind  them  came  her  brother, 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  his  broken  leg  still  disabling  him,  and  a  little 
after  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  with  their  daughters,  and  the 
Dukes  of  Coburg  and  Connaught,  Tecks,  Fifes,  and  a  number  of  for- 
eign Princes  and  Princesses.  In  the  crowd  of  invited  persons  there 
were  many  French  and  a  few  Italians.  There  were  hardly  any  English. 
Indeed,  all  the  English  I  saw  were  not  a  dozen.  Leighton  was  there 
and  Lady  Burdett  Coutts,  and  a  few  men  connected  with  the  Court, 
but  almost  no  one  belonging  to  general  society.  Nor  were  there  any 
English  presents,  which  is  strange,  but  though  living  so  long  in  Eng- 
land, they  hardly  knew  any  English  people.  Then  we  all  got  into  our 
carriages  and  drove  in  procession  through  Kingston  and  Twickenham, 
a  really  pretty  sight,  with  multitudes  of  flags  and  large  crowds  cheer- 
ing and  every  window  filled  in  the  old-fashioned  houses.  There  was 
something  Hogarthian  in  it  all.  In  Orleans  House  tables  were  laid 
for  the  royal  personages  and  Ambassadors,  but  we,  the  less  dis- 
tinguished, had  to  be  content  with  what  we  could  scramble  for  at 
buffets.  Then  we  went  into  the  garden  where  the  bride  and  bride- 
groom were  making  their  round  of  congratulations,  and  I  had  the  privi- 
lege with  others  of  kissing  the  bride's  royal  hand.  My  wedding  pres- 
ent of  the  Kelmscott  poems  was  laid  out  with  the  rest.  Sweet 
personage,  may  she  be  happy ! 

"  26th  June. —  Called  on  Lady  Lytton.  She  has  just  been  appointed 
Lady  of  the  Bedchamber  to  the  Queen  in  the  Duchess  of  Roxborough's 
place,  and  she  showed  me  Her  Majesty's  autograph  letter,  which  was 
very  kindly  and  even  touchingly  worded,  saying  she  admired  the  way 
she  had  borne  her  troubles,  recalling  Lytton's  good  services,  and  in 
a  postscript  saying  she  was  glad  of  Victor's  recovery  from  his  recent 
illness.  Certainly  the  old  Queen  has  the  power  of  conveying  her 
meaning  in  a  few  simple,  not  to  say  commonplace,  words  so  as  to 
give  the  impression  of  a  true  feeling,  more  than  most  women.  It 
affected  me  to  read  the  letter,  I  hardly  know  why. 

"  2()th  June. —  Called  on  Harry  Cust  at  the  '  Pall  Mall  Gazette  ' 
Office.  He  is  much  improved  since  last  year  and  takes  his  editorship 
seriously.  He  told  me  that  when  he  began  with  the  '  Pall  Mall  Ga- 
zette '  he  had  a  promise  of  office  as  soon  as  the  Tories  should  come 
into  power,  but  that  is  now  all  swept  away. 

"  Then  to  Newbuildings,  where  I  joined  Anne,  and  we  took  formal 
possession.  It  pleases  me  much  to  be  there,  for  it  is  far  more  of  a 
hermitage  than  Crabbet  was,  and  one  can  forget  here  the  worries  of 
the  world. 


172  A  Modern  Funeral  1895] 

"  6th  July. —  Called  on  Betty  Balfour,  whom  I  found  in  high  spirits 
at  the  appointment  of  her  husband  as  Chief  Secretary  in  Ireland. 
Gerald  is  a  very  able  fellow  and  will  doubtless  do  well  on  his  brother's 
lines,  and  I  had  some  talk  with  him  about  his  prospects  there. 

"  nth  July. —  Pamela's  wedding  to  Eddy  Tennant,  and  afterwards 
with  Judith  to  a  dance  at  Sibell  Grosvenor's  in  honour  of  it.  George 
(Wyndham)  was  in  delightful  vein  and  supped  with  Judith  and  me, 
entertaining  us  with  his  Epicurean  views  of  life.  '  What  we  want  in 
modern  life,'  he  said,  '  is  to  have  more  feasting,  song,  and  flowers, 
and  noise,  and  to  sit  long  and  late  with  beautiful  ladies,  ourselves 
crowned  with  wreaths.'  Certainly  his  own  entertainment,  the  first  he 
has  ever  given,  was  perfection.  He  has  just  been  returned  for  Dover 
unopposed,  the  first  member  of  the  new  Parliament.  His  is  a  happy 
nature. 

"  i$th  July. —  To  my  Aunt  Caroline  Chandler's  funeral  at  Witley, 
driving  there  and  back  from  Newbuildings,  a  full  forty-five  miles 
through  the  oak  country  of  the  Weald  —  an  almost  entirely  uninhab- 
ited district.  Witley  village,  with  the  exception  of  some  half-dozen 
new  cottages,  is  unchanged  from  what  I  remembered  it  as  a  boy  or  for 
that  matter  from  what  my  mother  knew  it,  as  her  drawings  of  it 
show  thirty  years  earlier.  Only  the  church  is  changed,  the  inside 
having  undergone  the  modern  rage  of  decoration.  The  funeral  was 
a  shock  to  me,  as  it  was  conducted  with  cheerful  music  and  a  merry 
peal  of  bells,  which  seemed  to  be  absurd.  The  old  English  services 
are  all  made  ridiculous  now  with  pseudo-catholic  'mummeries.'  They 
have  lost  their  dignity  of  old  days,  but  it  is  of  a  piece  with  the  whole 
English  character,  which  has  changed  from  top  to  bottom  in  my  short 
fifty  years  of  recollection.  Here  was  my  poor  old  aunt,  who,  when 
she  came  to  Witley  first  as  a  pretty  bride  in  1845,  was  wedded  soberly 
and  in  all  decorum,  now  in  1895  at  the  age  of  seventy-two  launched 
into  a  grave  piled  up  with  flowers  like  a  birthday  cake,  to  the  merriest 
strains  of  the  organ,  strains  to  which  we  might  with  no  impropriety 
have  danced.  The  only  old-fashioned  thing  in  the  ceremony  was  that 
her  son's  widow,  who  inherits  the  property,  fainted  and  was  carried 
out. 

"  igth  July. —  Lunched  with  Lady  Galloway.  There  has  been  a 
regular  rout  of  the  Liberals  at  the  Elections.  Harcourt,  John  Morley, 
Lefevre,  Arnold  Morley  among  the  slain.  Much  talk  of  all  this.  As- 
quith  has  won  or  kept  his  seat. 

"  I3//I  Aug. —  A  visit  from  one  Oppenheim,  a  Jew,  who  has  been 
travelling  in  Mesopotamia,  and  wants  to  go  to  Nejd.  [This  Op- 
penheim was  afterwards  an  agent  of  the  German  Government  attached 
to  the  German  Legation  in  Cairo,  much  concerned  in  his  Government's 
intrigues  there.] 


1895]  George  Curzon  Under  Secretary  173 

"  i^th  Aug. —  Lunched  with  George  Curzon  at  5,  Carlton  House 
Terrace,  which  he  has  rented.  We  talked  of  things  political,  and  of 
his  own  new  position  in  the  Government  as  Under-Secretary  for  For- 
eign Affairs.  He  prefers  this  to  a  minor  place  without  power  in  the 
Cabinet.  About  Armenia,  in  spite  of  the  brave  words  in  the  Queen's 
speech  to-day,  he  agrees  with  me  that  they  can  do  nothing.  Russia,  he 
says,  will  never  consent  to  an  Armenian  buffer  State,  even  if  there 
were  the  materials  to  make  one,  and  how  can  we  put  pressure  on  the 
Sultan  ?  In  truth  it  is  impossible,  and  the  sooner  they  drop  it  the  bet- 
ter, which  I  fancy  they  will  do.  He  told  me  all  the  same  that  the 
horrors  were  not  exaggerated.  I  told  him  of  Knowles  wanting  an 
article  of  me  about  Egypt.  This  he  deprecated  in  due  Parliamentary 
phrase.  It  was  embarrassing  the  Government  and  defeating  its  own 
end.  It  would  be  better  to  wait  a  little  till  the  Government  had  had 
time  to  look  about  it,  and  the  rest  which  are  the  common  excuses  of 
Under  Secretaries.  He  said  that  he  himself  was  entirely  opposed  to 
evacuation,  or  change  of  any  kind,  that  the  French  were  out  of  court  by 
their  having  refused  the  ratification  of  the  Wolff  Convention,  and  that 
he  considered  Lord  Salisbury  would  be  most  unwilling  to  re-open  the 
question,  though  as  yet  Lord  Salisbury  had  said  nothing  to  him  on  the 
subject,  the  matter  was  not  pressing.  The  Government  did  not  believe 
the  rumours  of  any  joint  French  and  Russian  action  about  Egypt.  All 
this  after  luncheon. 

"  Then  to  Merton  to  see  the  new  tapestry,  Botticelli's  Spring,  which 
Morris  is  making  for  me  there,  and  on  to  Coombe  where  I  dined  with 
Bertram  and  Laurence  Currie,  Bertram  full  of  old  and  interesting 
reminiscences. 

"25th  Aug. —  A  visit  to  Cromer,  Newhaven  Court,  the  Lockers' 
house. 

"  Francis  Palgrave  was  here  in  the  afternoon,  an  interesting  man, 
garrulous,  but  in  a  good  sense  of  the  word,  telling  stories,  principally 
of  Tennyson,  reminiscences  of  whom  he  is  writing.  He  talked  to  me 
about  his  brother  Gifford  (the  Arabian  traveller),  and  told  me  that 
in  the  last  three  years  of  his  life  he  was  reconciled  to  the  Church,  and 
that  this  had  made  him  much  happier  and  more  contented.  I  asked 
him  how  matters  had  been  arranged  about  the  wife  and  children,  seeing 
that  Gifford  was  a  priest  and  had  been  a  Jesuit.  He  said  his  brother 
had  told  him  that  no  difficulty  had  been  made,  such  cases  having  of 
course  often  happened  before.  He  was  allowed  to  continue  his  domes- 
tic life,  only  not  conjugally ;  that  Gifford  had  told  him  laughing  was  no 
great  privation.  He  was  glad  to  hear  me  corroborate  the  accuracy 
of  his  brother's  account  of  the  politics  of  Nejd  and  its  social  condition. 
He  was  anxious  I  should  believe  Gifford  was  never  really,  or  ostensibly 
a  Moslem. 


174  Leaving  England  [1895 

"  Miss  Kate  Greenaway  is  also  staying  in  the  house. 

"  26th  Aug. —  I  have  come  to  Ockham  for  a  night,  where  all  is  much 
improved  since  Ralph  came  into  his  inheritance.  Miss  Lawless,  the 
novelist,  is  staying  here,  a  well-informed,  clever  woman,  and  a  good 
talker." 

On  8th  September  I  left  England  once  more  for  abroad. 


CHAPTER  IX 

POLAND   AND   ARMENIA 

I  left  Newbuildings  on  the  5th,  Anne  coming  up  to  London  to  see 
the  last  of  me  (for  I  was  going  abroad  alone),  and  as  my  first  stage  to 
Gros  Bois. 

"  8th  Sept. —  Gros  Bois.  We  are  much  occupied  here  with  a  new 
catalogue  Wagram  is  having  made  of  the  family  papers.  Many  of 
them  are  most  interesting.  Wagram's  ancestor,  the  father  of  Marshal 
Berthier,  seems  to  have  performed  on  a  certain  occasion  some  small 
service  at  Versailles  —  he  was  in  a  very  subordinate  position  —  help- 
ing to  put  out  a  fire  in  the  stables  and  also  designing  a  star  and  baton 
for  the  Marshals  of  France,  and  for  these  was  ennobled  by  Louis  XV. 
The  son  was  therefore  not  quite  a  parvenu  when  Bonaparte  attached 
him  to  his  fortunes.  He  eventually  became  '  Due  de  Neuchatel  et 
Valangin,  par  la  grace  de  Dieu  et  1'acte  imperial  de  Napoleon  I,  Em- 
pereur  des  Frangais *  (such  is  the  inscription  over  one  of  the  doors  of 
Gros  Bois)  and  was  at  one  time  possessor  of  Chambord.  He  died 
while  Napoleon  was  at  Elba,  and  so  avoided  the  final  debacle.  But 
the  Marshal's  son  signed  an  act  of  renunciation  of  the  Duchy  of 
Neuchatel,  and  restored  Chambord  to  its  royal  owners,  since  when 
the  descendants  have  remained  Princes  of  Wagram  at  Gros  Bois,  a  far 
more  enjoyable  if  less  splendid  possession.  M.  Jusserand  was  here 
last  night,  and  we  looked  through  these  papers  together,  with  Duphot 
the  young  man  who  is  making  the  catalogue. 

"  Jusserand  is  a  very  small  dark  man,  with  large  head  of  the  brachi- 
cephalic  type  —  left  at  the  present  moment  in  charge  of  the  Foreign 
Office,  his  superiors  being  away  aux  canx  —  a  clever  talker,  and,  I 
should  say,  a  very  able  official  as  well  as  literary  man.  He  was 
Chauvinist  enough  to  show  emotion  when  reading  the  original  of  the 
capitulation  of  Ulm  signed  by  Mack,  and  later  the  document  signed 
by  Ney  and  others,  settling  the  line  of  military  demarcation  in  France 
with  the  Allies.  There  are  among  the  documents  some  interesting  let- 
ters from  Napoleon  and  one  from  Marie  Louise  signed  '  Louise.' 

"  Another  interesting  man  here  yesterday  was  Ludovic  Halevy,  who 
gave  us  reminiscences  of  the  Second  Empire  when  he  was  Clerk  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  acted  in  some  sort  as  temporary  Secretary 
to  Morny.  His  reading  of  the  Empire  is  that  which  all  who  were  much 

175 


176  Ludovic  Halevy  [1895 

behind  the  scenes  have  long  known  to  be  the  true  one,  and  which  His- 
tory will  adopt  —  namely,  that  Napoleon  III  was  not  by  blood  really 
a  Bonaparte,  and  as  little  by  character,  a  phlegmatic,  good-natured 
man,  fond  of  ease  and  fond  of  women,  with  a  certain  superstitious  be- 
lief in  his  star,  and  ambitious  less  by  natural  taste  than  by  position. 
Morny,  his  half  brother,  was  at  the  beginning  his  guiding  spirit,  but 
was  ousted  from  favour  by  the  Empress  several  years  before  his  death 
in  1865.  The  Empress  Eugenie  was  without  doubt  the  cause  of  Napo- 
leon Ill's  latest  misfortunes.  A  beautiful  woman  and  of  good  family 
in  Spain,  she  was  all  the  same  an  adventuress,  and  had  had  more  than 
one  lover  besides  the  Duke  of  Sesto,  whom  she  loved  before  she  came 
to  Paris.  The  Emperor  only  married  her  because  she  was  clever  enough 
to  refuse  him  on  other  terms.  She  led  him  an  unquiet  life,  making 
him  constant  domestic  scenes,  from  which  he  fled  to  Marguerite 
Bellanger,  at  whose  apartment  he  was  free  from  worries.  (Marguerite 
Bellanger  was,  if  I  remember  rightly,  the  daughter  of  Bellanger,  who 
kept  Voisin's  restaurant,  and,  when  I  was  at  Paris,  a  professional  lady 
of  pleasure.) 

"  Halevy  recounted  an  incident  of  which  he  was  witness  when 
Morny,  coming  back  from  the  Conseil  des  Ministres,  threw  down  his 
portfolio  in  a  rage,  and  swore  he  would  never  go  again  while  the  Em- 
press was  allowed  to  talk  nonsense  there.  '  L'Empereur  fera  la  guerre,' 
he  exclaimed,  '  un  de  ces  jours  pour  lui  eviter  une  scene  de  f  amille,' 
and  this  was  precisely  the  thing  that  happened.  At  the  time  of  the 
quarrel  with  Prussia  in  1870,  she  had  come  suddenly  to  the  Council 
Chamber  and  dismissed  the  Ministers  in  her  husband's  absence,  say- 
ing: '  Messieurs,  il  y  a  conge  aujourd'hui.  Nous  sommes  en  fete.  La 
guerre  est  declaree.'  Halevy  is  a  capital  talker  —  I  should  imagine  of 
Hebrew  origin,  judging  by  his  profile  and  other  signs  —  a  neighbour 
of  the  Prince's  here  at  Gros  Bois,  and  intimate,  too,  with  the  Alphonse 
Rothschilds.  His  son,  a  most  interesting  young  man  of  the  serious 
student  kind  one  reads  of  in  French  novels  but  so  seldom  meets,  was 
here  on  Friday  —  an  abler  man,  I  should  say,  even  than  his  father. 
Poor  Mme.  Alphonse  was  also  here  —  it  being  Berthe's  wedding-day 
—  a  sad  woman,  mourning  her  lost  beauty  and  trying  to  be  gay.  There 
was,  of  course,  much  talk  of  the  attempts  made  against  Alphonse  by 
the  anarchists.  He  goes  about  guarded  everywhere  by  detectives.  All 
complained  of  the  lack  of  government  in  France,  and  all  blamed  the 
Parliamentary  regime. 

"  12th  Sept. —  Antonin.  I  passed  through  Paris  on  Sunday  after- 
noon (the  8th)  on  my  way  to  the  Potockis  here  in  Poland,  and  spent 
a  couple  of  hours  at  the  Embassy,  or  rather  in  the  Embassy  garden,  to 
which  Lord  Dufferin  invited  me.  I  had  an  hour  alone  in  it,  sitting  at 
the  farther  end,  near  the  grille  —  in  some  sort  a  sacred  spot  for  me. 


1895]  Our  Lord  Mayor  at  Paris  177 

Then  Dufferin  came  to  fetch  me,  and  took  me  off  to  Lady  Dufferin, 
who  was  holding  court  for  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  on  the  lawn, 
all  sitting  on  gilded  arm-chairs  on  a  red  carpet  —  the  Lord  Mayor,  Sir 
Francis  Reinalls,  a  ridiculous,  pompous  little  man,  who  has  come  over 
to  Paris  to  make  a  splash,  bringing  his  gilt  coach  and  four  horses  with 
him.  Dufferin  tells  me  that  at  the  Elysee  Reinalls  took  upon  himself 
to  compliment  the  President  on  his  royal  bearing,  and  to  invite  him  to 
stay  with  him  at  the  Mansion  House.  He  seems  to  have  made  a  fool 
of  himself  all  round.  He  told  me  himself  that  he  had  been  to  the 
Theatre  Franc.ais,  and  had  been  so  bored  that  he  had  gone  away  to  a 
Cafe  Chantant,  and  I  see  the  French  papers  have  got  hold  of  the  story, 
while  the  English  ones  contain  a  protest  that  he  has  no  commission  at 
all  to  represent  the  City  of  London  in  Paris. 

"  Dufferin  was  very  kind  and  pleasant,  as  he  always  is  to  me,  and 
showed  me  his  books.  Among  them  was  a  volume  of  Gregory's  Mem- 
oirs, and  he  fired  up  when  I  noticed  it,  repudiating  with  great  indigna- 
tion the  story  told  there  of  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Norton,  having  sold  the  in- 
formation of  Peel's  change  on  the  Corn  Law  question  to  the  '  Times.' 
He  assured  me  it  was  entirely  false,  as  he  had  traced  the  truth  to  Peel 
himself,  who  desired  to  clinch  the  matter.  He  considered  it  a  cruel 
libel  on  his  virtuous  aunt.  But  Dufferin  is  touching  in  his  family 
fidelity. 

"  At  6.30  I  took  train  for  Vienna,  arriving  there  the  night  of  Qth 
September.  Stayed  at  Sacher's  Hotel,  a  very  excellent  inn,  and  on 
the  morning  of  the  loth,  after  calling  on  Barrington  and  Clarke  at  the 
Embassy,  and  getting  my  passport  from  them,  I  again  took  train,  and 
so  through  the  following  night  and  the  morning  of  yesterday,  arriving 
at  length  somewhat  tired  and  very  dirty  at  Czerny  Ostrov,  my  final 
station.  At  the  frontier,  Voloschitzka,  I  had  some  difficulty  about  my 
passport,  of  which  the  Russian  authorities  seemed  suspicious,  but  with 
the  help  of  Count  Bielski,  a  young  Pole  whom  I  had  met  in  the  train, 
got  through.  At  Czerny  Ostrov  a  carriage  and  four  was  waiting,  and 
I  was  driven  rapidly  to  Antonin,  the  last  half  of  the  road  in  Countess 
Joseph  Potocka's  four-in-hand  of  four  dark  bay  Arab  mares,  very 
beautiful  ones  and  beautifully  matched,  going  a  great  pace.  The  roads 
were  good,  there  having  been  no  rain  for  long,  and  we  did  the  distance 
of  twenty-two  miles  in  about  two  hours. 

"  To-day  I  have  been  shown  the  stud.  The  Arab  portion  of  it  is, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  in  a  lamentable  condition  compared  with  what  it  was 
eleven  years  ago  when  I  saw  it  last.  The  reason  is  the  want  of  proper 
stallions.  For  one  reason  or  another  Potocki  has  been  unable  to  pro- 
cure a  really  first  class  one,  and  the  horse,  '  Euclid,'  which  he  bought 
in  India  of  Lord  William  Beresford  for,  I  believe,  500  guineas,  has 
proved  an  absolute  failure  at  the  stud.  His  stock  are  coarse,  without 


178  With  Count  Potocki  in  Poland  [1895 

beauty  or  action,  and  are  worse  than  the  worst  we  have  ever  bred  at 
C  rabbet.  They  have  not  even  the  merit,  if  it  is  one,  of  exceptional  size. 
Of  the  six  stallions  he  showed  me  there  was  but  one  preserving  the 
Arab  type,  a  dark  chestnut  with  four  white  legs, '  Iflah,'  a  four-year-old 
with  nice  action,  bred  by  a  horse  he  had  from  the  Babolna  stud  called 
'  Zarif/  out  of  a  fine  old  mare,  '  Khan  jar.'  The  rest  were  not  worth 
looking  at.  '  Euclid '  himself,  who  has  been  re-chistened  '  Obeyan,' 
is  a  horse  not  unlike  '  Kars,'  with  a  fine  fore-hand  and  good  points,  too, 
in  the  quarter,  but  with  a  plain  head  (Kars  had  a  fine  one)  of  the  con- 
vex type,  and  lacking  distinction  all  through.  It  is  only  another  proof 
of  the  mistake  of  breeding  from  a  winner  of  races  if  you  want  to  get 
handsome  Arab  stock.  The  fastest  horses  are,  I  believe,  never,  among 
Arabians,  the  best  sires.  The  mares,  which  we  looked  over  in  the 
afternoon,  are  far  better  and  deserve  a  better  sire.  There  are  a  dozen 
really  good  ones  —  the  rest  inferior  —  but  the  dozen  are  enough  to 
refound  the  stud,  though  several  of  the  best  are  old.  I  regret  im- 
mensely having  sold  '  Shahwan '  to  America,  as  he  would  have  been 
well  employed  here,  and,  except  '  Ahmar,'  whom  I  cannot  well  spare, 
I  have  nothing  old  enough  left  to  give.  The  mares  I  admired  most 
were  '  Druha  '  and  her  daughter  '  Nerissa,'  '  Zalotna,'  '  Luba/  '  Khiva,' 
'  Poppeia,'  and  '  Khalifa,'  the  dam  of  '  Iflah.'  But  most  of  them  had 
unworthy  foals  to  foot  by  '  Euclid.'  On  the  whole  it  was  a  disappoint- 
ing spectacle,  and  I  spoke  frankly  to  Potocki,  or  at  least  as  frankly  as 
it  is  possible  to  speak  in  such  cases.  I  found  him  well  aware  of 
'  Euclid's  '  failure.  Then  Countess  Potocka  drove  me  round  the  oak 
wood  and  through  the  grounds,  which  have  been  newly  laid  out  and 
very  well. 

"  i^th  Sept. —  I  have  had  much  interesting  talk  with  Potocki  about 
Polish  history,  and  the  great  part  played  in  it  by  his  ancestors,  who 
were  many  of  them  military  leaders.  His  cousins,  the  Sangusckos, 
were  independent  princes  in  Lithuania  400  years  ago ;  and  these  lands  at 
Antonin  and  Schepetowka  lay  on  the  high  road  —  it  is  still  called  the 
'black  road' — of  the  Tartar  invasions  as  late  as  150  years  ago.  To 
come  to  later  times,  he  talked  of  the  famous  Princess  Czartoriska,  his 
great-grandmother,  who  was  the  beloved  of  Lauzun,  and  he  has  given 
me  Maugras'  book  to  read,  which  has  just  come  out.  It  is  founded  on 
Lauzun's  memoirs,  which  Potocki  assures  me  are  authentic,  and  the 
original  of  which,  privately  printed,  he  has  had  in  his  hands.  I  asked 
him  why  Maugras,  instead  of  giving  a  Bowdlerised  rechauffe  of  it,  had 
not  quoted  the  original,  and  he  said  it  entered  into  quite  impossible 
details,  unfit  for  publication.  I  would  give  a  great  deal  to  read  the 
original  as  it  stands,  for  nothing  strikes  me  more  strongly  than  the 
identity  of  the  highly  cultivated  society  of  our  day  in  London  with 
that  of  Versailles  then.  Not,  I  think,  that  we  are  so  corrupt  in  money 


1895]  Bulgarian  Politics  179 

matters,  or  perhaps  quite  so  open  in  our  love  affairs,  but  still  the  human 
nature  of  it  is  identical,  and  the  peculiarity  of  the  co-existence  of  much 
high  ideality  in  principle  with  passionate  love-making  in  practice. 

"  There  is  much  cholera  going  on  in  the  villages  round  here.  Po- 
tocki  showed  me  a  village  to-day  where  100  persons  have  died,  a  local 
outbreak,  almost  confined  to  the  province  of  Volhynia. 

"  i^th  Sept. —  Spent  the  day  seeing  Prince  Sanguscko's  stud  at 
Christowka,  a  really  magnificent  collection  of  mares,  no  English  or  other 
than  Arab  blood  having  been  admitted.  The  flea-bitten  greys  were 
some  of  them  quite  wonderful.  There  is,  however,  a  great  lack  of 
promising  young  stallions,  the  stallions  in  stud  use  being  away  at 
Slavuta.  Christowka  is  20  versts  —  16  miles  —  from  Antonin  across 
the  black  earth  of  the  steppe,  now  all  under  cultivation  —  the  few  vil- 
lages much  swept  by  cholera.  Christowka  itself  has  lost  160  persons. 

"  We  were  received  by  the  manager  and  his  Viennese  wife,  a  young 
bourgeoise  who  insisted  on  entertaining  us.  The  Antonin  Director, 
who  was  with  me,  is  an  intelligent  man,  a  Pole  from  near  Riga,  and 
had  been  for  several  years  in  the  service  of  the  Bulgarian  Government. 
On  the  way  home  he  gave  me  a  long  and  clear  account  of  Bulgarian 
politics.  According  to  him  (his  name  is  Cherkowski)  Prince  Alex- 
ander of  Battenburg,  with  his  many  talents,  was  too  young  for  the  posi- 
tion he  was  given,  and  made  many  mistakes.  The  Russians  —  though 
as  a  Pole  he  had  no  desire  to  praise  them  —  were  really  governing  the 
country  well.  Their  administration  was  excellent,  and  they  had  carried 
out  in  Bulgaria  the  reforms  they  only  talk  of  in  Russia,  the  finance  be- 
ing especially  good.  It  has  gone  down  rapidly  since  their  departure. 
Prince  Alexander  was  sustained  by  Austrian  and  English  help.  Prince 
Ferdinand  he  likes  better.  He,  Ferdinand,  is  a  quiet  man,  much  ad- 
dicted to  science,  especially  botany.  He  would  never  have  thought  of 
accepting  a  throne  but  for  his  mother.  Ferdinand  is  incapable,  Cher- 
kowski says,  of  having  been  concerned  in  Stambuloff's  assassination, 
though  Stambuloff  treated  him  with  great  arrogance.  Stambuloff's 
death  was  in  all  probability  a  private  vengeance.  He  was  a  man  of 
the  most  corrupt  life,  taking  advantage  of  his  official  position  to  get 
women  into  his  power,  any  who  came  or  whose  husbands  came  to  him 
with  petitions.  He  had  violated  many  women,  notoriously  a  certain 
singer  who  was  engaged  to  be  married,  he  and  the  chief  of  the  police 
between  them.  The  woman  committed  suicide  on  account  of  it.  He 
was  hated  for  these  crimes,  and  they  were  probably  the  reason  of  his 
end.  He,  Cherkowski,  was  at  the  head  there  of  the  veterinary  depart- 
ment. The  Bulgarian  Government  had  required  of  him  to  become 
naturalized,  but  he  had  refused,  so  left  their  service  to  enter  that  of 
Potocki.  The  Bulgarians  were  a  clever  people  with  much  outward 
polish,  but  quite  corrupt.  They  disliked  all  foreigners,  but  perhaps 


i8o  To  Kiev  with  Potocki  [1895 

Russians  less  than  the  rest.     He  does  not  believe  that  Russia  will 
succeed  in  recovering  her  lost  position  in  the  country." 

Slavuta  and  its  stud  have  acquired  a  tragic  notoriety  since  this  entry 
was  written,  having  been  the  scene  of  one  of  those  hideous  outrages 
which  distinguished  the  Bolshevik  revolution  of  1917.  Prince  Sang- 
uscko,  the  owner  of  the  stud,  was  in  his  country  house  at  Slavuta,  when 
a  number  of  disbanded  soldiers  recently  returned  from  the  Russian 
army  broke  into  his  house  and  took  him  out  of  it  and  brutally  ill- 
treated  him,  killing  him  at  last  with  their  bayonets,  and  then  pillaging 
the  chateau  and  destroying  the  whole  of  his  Arabian  stud.  This  oc- 
curred in  the  autumn  of  1917. 

"  i6th  Sept. —  I  was  to  have  left  to-day  for  Kiev,  but  heavy  rain  has 
fallen  and  the  roads  are  impassable. 

"  i8//t  Sept. —  Potocki  and  I  drove  last  night  to  Czerny  Ostrov  and 
dined  at  the  house  there  of  a  certain  Countess,  once  a  woman  of  some 
fashion  at  Paris  in  the  days  of  Napoleon  III,  still  full  of  gossip,  ancient 
and  modern,  for  she  goes  yearly  to  Nice  for  the  winter.  At  Czerny 
Ostrov  she  has  a  nice  villa  with  gardens  and  grounds,  and  a  select  circle 
of  such  fashionable  friends  as  the  town  affords,  with  an  ancient  ad- 
mirer much  dyed  and  painted. 

"  Then  Joseph  and  I  travelled  on  through  the  night  and  arrived  in 
the  morning  at  Kiev.  The  country  for  thirty  miles  or  so  south  of  Kiev 
is  a  great  oak  forest  with  spaces  of  cleared  land  —  no  very  large  trees, 
but  growing  well,  they  say,  for  the  first  100  years,  till  their  roots  come 
to  the  gravel,  when  their  growth  is  stopped.  Oaks  and  birches  are 
evidently  the  natural  growth  of  the  country,  with  alders  in  the  swampy 
places  and  a  few  other  trees,  though  there  is  a  certain  admixture  of 
Scotch  firs,  new  comers  I  should  say.  The  Dnieper  is  the  boundary 
beyond  which  the  great  fir  forests  of  the  north  begin.  The  cleared  land 
is  a  wide  desolation  of  stubbles  and  beetroot,  stretching  for  miles  with- 
out hedge  or  landmark. 

"  Potocki's  business  in  Kiev  is  connected  with  the  sugar  trade,  in 
which  he,  in  common  with  all  the  landed  proprietors,  is  interested.  The 
market  now  is  overstocked,  and  he  tells  me  he  is  working  his  factories 
at  a  loss.  A  few  years  ago  they  were  giving  a  prodigious  income,  but 
the  production  has  become  25  per  cent,  more  than  the  home  consump- 
tion, and  the  general  world's  sugar  market  at  Odessa  has  fallen  below 
cost  price.  He  has  something  like  30,000  acres  of  land  in  hand,  and 
his  stake  in  beetroot  sugar  is  a  large  one.  While  he  went  to  his  sugar 
conference,  I  made  the  round  of  Kiev  with  his  agent  Kosacki,  who 
showed  me  'everything.  It  is  a  very  beautiful  and  interesting  place 
with  the  finest  situation,  perhaps,  of  any  town  in  Europe.  The  view 
northwards  over  the  Dnieper  and  beyond  over  the  great  forest  towards 
Moscow  is  splendid,  and  this  evening,  with  a  wonderful  effect  of  light 


1895]  A  Visit  to  the  Ukraine  181 

from  the  setting  sun  on  the  gilt  cupolas,  and  a  rainbow  in  the  east,  was 
unimaginably  grand.  Kiev  is  a  very  ancient  and  holy  city,  with  fine 
churches,  undergoing  restoration,  alas,  in  view  of  the  Emperor's  com- 
ing visit.  The  Petchersk  is  especially  interesting,  an  immense  Convent 
in  the  Citadel,  thronged  just  now  with  pilgrims  from  distant  places  in 
Russia,  and  beneath  it  a  catacomb  to  which  one  descends  by  a  long  stair 
towards  the  river  —  a  fine  old-world  place,  hardly  yet  ruined  by  the 
villainous  modern  taste. 

"  At  the  inn  I  made  acquaintance  with  Count  Ladislas  Branicki,  who 
has  arranged  that  I  am  to  go  to  stay  with  his  Aunt,  Countess  Branicka, 
at  Biela-Tzerkov  to-morrow,  also  with  Count  Pothofski,  who  has  a 
stud  of  Arab  horses,  and  other  friends  of  Joseph's.  Our  inn  the 
Grand  Hotel. 

"  igth  Sept. —  By  early  train  to  Biela-Tzerkov,  changing  at  Fastov. 
There  I  was  met  by  Prince  John  Sapieha,  who  had  come  with  his  niece, 
Mile,  de  Branicka,  to  see  another  niece  away  by  the  train,  both  the 
girls  very  pretty  in  their  different  ways.  We  then  drove  with  four 
horses,  handsome  bays,  to  Alexandrie,  Countess  Branicka's  country 
house,  a  very  fine  place  with  beautiful  woods  and  pleasure  grounds 
where  presently,  after  I  had  been  entertained  with  tea  and  peaches, 
we  went  walking  to  see  a  pond  netted.  There  is  a  large  family  party 
gathered  here  for  Countess  Branicka's  birthday.  Her  married  daugh- 
ter, Princess  Radowitz,  with  her  children,  her  nephew,  Prince  John 
Sapieha,  and  his  wife,  her  unmarried  daughter,  the  pretty  one,  Sophie, 
a  Countess  Zeilern  and  her  daughter,  an  old  Count  Diodati,  a  Swiss  in 
attendance  on  Princess  Radowitz,  and  a  few  others  whose  names  I 
have  not  quite  learned.  It  is  rather  perplexing  to  find  oneself  so  com- 
plete a  stranger  among  so  many. 

"  2Oth  Sept. —  With  Sapieha  to  Uzin,  a  stud  belonging  to  Count 
Xavier  Branicki,  a  nephew  of  the  Countess,  lying  about  sixteen  miles 
away.  We  drove  with  four  common  horses,  and  on  the  road  Sapieha 
explained  to  me  the  Branicki  family  history.  Biela-Tzerkov  was  the 
capital  of  the  Ukraine,  and  in  former  times  the  headquarters  of 
Mazeppa.  According  to  tradition  the  wild  horse  brought  him  here 
from  Warsaw.  The  steppe  was  then  all  grass,  but  hardly  anything  of 
this  remains  now,  all  being  under  cultivation.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  an  immense  territory  of  about  a  million  and  a  half 
acres  was  given  to  the  Branicki  of  the  day  —  I  fancy  the  same  as  the 
Branicki  of  the  Lauzun  Memoirs  —  in  lieu  of  a  long-standing  claim  he 
had  against  the  Polish  Government  for  the  raising  and  maintenance  of 
troops.  He  was  called  the  Hetman.  The  territory  was  worth  very 
little  in  those  days,  but  is  now  a  principality,  bringing  in  about  ~s.  an 
acre,  the  current  rent.  On  the  death  of  the  late  Count,  however,  it  was 
divided  into  four,  the  Countess's  share  as  widow  and  for  her  children 


182  Countess  Branicka  [1895 

amounted  to  450,000  acres.     She  is  therefore  immensely  rich.    The 
stud  also  was  divided. 

"  The  history  of  the  stud,  of  which  I  have  looked  over  the  books, 
seems  to  begin  authentically  in  1813,  though  Sapieha  claims  for  it  forty 
years  or  more  of  antiquity.  It  can  hardly  be  called  a  pure  Arab  stud, 
as  the  stallions  then  imported  stand  entered  as  Turk,  Turcoman,  An- 
atolian, Persian,  Arab,  and  even  in  1828  English,  while  the  mares  are 
equally  mixed.  It  is  clear  that  they  have  run  too  much  after  size; 
and  at  Uzin  the  type  is  nearly  lost.  Occasionally,  however,  they  pro- 
duce a  first-class  horse,  and  I  saw  two  such,  '  Hamat '  and  '  Haman,'  a 
bay  and  a  chestnut,  of  great  beauty  and  ideal  action,  though  15.2  or 
more  in  height.  The  latter  especially  is  a  nearly  perfect  specimen,  and 
will  be  retained  to  breed  from.  The  mares  are  far  inferior  in  looks 
to  the  Sanguscko  mares,  having  coarse  heads,  long  backs,  and  long 
legs.  They  carry  their  tails,  however,  generally  well.  One  cannot 
avoid  the  conviction  about  them  that  they  are  of  mixed  origin.  I  only 
saw  one  mare,  '  Tamisa,'  one  would  have  supposed  to  be  an  Arab. 
They  are  breeding  now  largely  from  an  English  thoroughbred,  which 
gives  more  saleable  stock.  They  have,  however,  a  very  beautiful  im- 
ported Arab  stallion,  '  Heyan,'  of  which  they  are  proud  —  a  dark,  full 
chestnut,  compact,  strong,  and  of  the  highest  quality.  I  should  judge 
him  to  be  a  horse  from  Nejd,  as  he  is  not  quite  of  the  Anazeh  type. 
But  they  know  no  more  about  him  than  that  he  was  brought  to  Warsaw 
by  a  dealer.  I  strongly  advised  his  use  for  their  stud. 

"  Countess  Branicka  is  a  most  amiable  woman.  Her  mother,  she 
tells  me,  was  English,  a  sister  of  Colonel  Wilson  Patten's  wife,  after- 
wards Lord  Winmarleigh.  She  is  clever  and  kind,  most  kind  to  me, 
doing  everything  to  make  me  comfortable,  and  that  I  may  feel  at  home. 
Her  daughter  Sophie  interests  me,  a  strange,  original  face,  with  a 
pretty,  delicate  figure,  and  a  great  look  of  distinction  [afterwards 
Countess  Strozzi].  The  other  daughter  is  Princess  Radziwill.  Sa- 
pieha (the  Countess's  brother)  was  brought  up  in  England,  served  in  a 
Dragoon  regiment,  and  talks  French  with  a  slight  English  accent,  Eng- 
lish with  sporting  slang  of  thirty  years  ago.  His  father  was  con- 
cerned in  the  Polish  rising  of  1830,  and  had  his  whole  estate  in  Russia 
confiscated,  worth,  Countess  Branicka  tells  me,  thirty  millions  of 
roubles.  His  wife,  a  nice  plain  woman,  had  a  fortune,  and  they  live  in 
Galicia.  He  is  most  amiable  to  me,  showing  me  all  things  with  great 
zeal.  He  is  or  has  been  manager  of  the  estate  and  stud.  Altogether  a 
distinguished  family,  living  a  large  but  unpretentious  life.  The  house, 
Alexandrie,  is  less  than  a  palace  and  more  than  a  common  country 
house,  and  is  supplemented  with  several  smaller  houses  in  the  grounds, 
where  the  guests  have  their  apartments.  I  should  be  happy,  but  that 


1895]  A  Long  Distance  Ride  in  Poland  183 

the  weather  again  broke  up  this  evening,  and  it  has  become  intensely 
cold. 

"  2ist  Sept. —  Drove  another  twenty-five  versts  with  Sapieha  to  see 
the  Countess's  own  stud  —  the  mares  better  than  those  of  yesterday. 
But  they  are  dreadfully  in  want  of  good  stallions. 

"  22nd  Sept.  (Sunday}. —  A  bad  cold,  so  did  no  more  stud  seeing  — 
in  bed  instead.  But  in  the  afternoon  to  the  oak  wood  —  they  call  it  the 
park  —  a  delightful  place,  where  we  gathered  'orange-coloured  mush- 
rooms. Mile.  Sophie  drove  a  pair  of  chestnut  mares  to-day  perfect  in 
shape  and  type.  All  the  world  drives  here.  We  went  out,  three  four- 
in-hands  and  three  pairs  —  one  four-in-hand  of  ponies  being  driven  by 
a  child  of  Princess  Radziwill  of  five  years  old.  There  are  two  very 
fine  teams,  chestnuts  and  bays,  and  a  third  of  greys,  besides  the  ponies. 
All  is  done  on  a  large  and  bountiful  scale,  with  numbers  of  old  serv- 
ants, who  carry  the  children  about  and  kiss  their  mistress's  hand  or 
sleeve  as  in  the  East.  The  park  is  a  sanctuary  for  wild  beasts  and 
birds,  and  no  gun  is  fired  in  it.  But  they  have  an  English  pack  of 
hounds,  and  go  outside  with  it  twice  a  week  fox  hunting.  Foxes  are 
plentiful,  but  get  soon  to  earth.  In  the  winter  there  are  wolves,  and 
Sapieha  told  me  of  a  run  they  had  had  of  forty-two  versts  after  an  old 
one,  which  they  killed.  The  hounds  were  afraid  of  it,  but  brought  it 
to  bay,  and  a  peasant  killed  it  with  a  cudgel. 

"  There  has  been  a  race  this  year  at  Warsaw,  ridden  by  young  Rus- 
sian officers,  of  100  versts  or  120  kilometres,  say  seventy  miles.  It 
was  run  in  the  extreme  of  the  hot  weather,  and,  out  of  forty-one  start- 
ers, thirty-six  horses  died.  The  race  began  at  eight  minutes  past  two  in 
the  afternoon,  and  the  first  horse,  an  English  thoroughbred,  arrived  at 
a  few  minutes  before  eight.  He  survived.  The  second  and  third,  also 
English  thoroughbreds,  died  soon  after  coming  in,  and  the  fourth,  an 
Arab  from  Sanguscko's  stud,  arrived  fresh  an  hour  after  the  first  and 
took  no  harm.  The  young  officers  seem  to  have  ridden  like  lunatics, 
and  I  fancy  the  horses  were  only  half  trained.  But  I  am  to  have 
precise  details  from  Potocki.  Most  of  the  horses  died  actually  on 
the  road. 

"  I  took  an  affectionate  leave  of  Countess  Branicka,  for  she  is  a 
really  good  kind  woman,  and  we  have  made  great  friends.  She  has  a 
house  also  at  Warsaw,  another  at  Kiev,  and  another,  I  think,  at  Vienna. 
The  rest  of  the  party  have  also  been  most  friendly  to  me,  and  I  am  glad 
to  have  made  their  acquaintance,  where  one  sees  them  at  their  best,  in 
their  own  country. 

"  We  had  some  talk  about  their  political  misfortunes.  They  all  say 
the  cause  of  Poland  is  lost,  and  that  there  is  nothing  more  to  hope. 
The  persecution  is  more  religious  now  than  political.  '  I  should  not  be 


184  At  the  Constantinople  Embassy 

surprised  to  wake  up  any  morning,'  said  little  Mile.  Sophie,  '  and  learn 
that  we  had  to  become  Greeks  or  leave  the  country.'  All  the  peasantry 
and  many  of  the  bourgeoisie  have  conformed,  and  the  young  generation 
of  converted  Poles  are  among  the  most  fanatical  Russians.  The  elder 
brother  of  Countess  Branicka's  husband  was  concerned  in  the  rebellion 
of  1863,  the  last  flicker  of  Polish  nationality,  and  was  exiled  to  Siberia, 

the  property  passing,  I  fancy,  to  the  younger  brother. 
*  *  *  * 

"  26th  Sept. —  Constantinople,  or,  rather,  Therapia.  I  arrived  at  day- 
light this  morning  in  the  Bosphorus,  coming  by  Russian  steamer  from 
Odessa.  A  lovely  morning,  with  a  slight  fog  or  haze,  enough  to  give 
everything  a  mysterious  look,  but  brightening  into  full  sunshine  later, 
with  fresh  north  wind  rippling  the  blue  water.  As  we  steamed  down 
the  Bosphorus  the  Russian  ship's  mate,  who  talked  some  English  he  had 
learned  in  Japan,  described  what  might  be  done  with  such  a  position  in 
the  hands  of  a  European  Power,  the  continuous  streets,  the  railways, 
the  electric  light,  etc.  Thank  Heaven,  it  is  still  in  its  old-fashioned 
way. 

"  Arrived  at  Galata  I  was  rowed  straight  to  the  bridge,  and  on 
board  one  of  the  Bosphorus  boats,  and  was  so  taken  back  to  Therapia, 
a  slow  three  hours'  trip,  zigzagging  from  side  to  side,  and  in  full 
enjoyment  of  the  day  and  place.  Breakfasted  at  Petala's,  unchanged 
from  its  condition  of  thirty-five  years  ago,  when  I  first  saw  it  on  my 
way  home  from  Athens  in  this  very  month  of  September,  1860.  Then, 
going  to  the  Embassy,  I  found  that  I  was  expected  to  take  up  my 
quarters  there,  and  here  I  am.  It  is  strange  to  be  here,  with  Philip  for 
Ambassador  and  Violet  Fane  for  Ambassadress.  Philip  is  altogether 
charming,  unaffected  by  his  official  importance,  natural  and  kind. 

"  27/A  Sept. —  There  are  staying  in  the  house  Pom  McDonnell,  who 
is  Lord  Salisbury's  private  secretary,  come  out,  I  fancy,  to  gather  the 
Ambassador's  innermost  thoughts  for  his  master's  benefit  —  a  charming 
fellow  —  and  Henry  Yorke  and  Lady  Lilian.  I  spent  the  morning 
answering  letters  from  home,  and  went  riding  in  the  afternoon  with 
Philip  and  Pom  over  the  heath-covered  hills  behind  Therapia. 

"  2&>th  Sept. —  In  the  Embassy  caique  to  Ruvukdereh  to  call  on  Neli- 
doff  (Russian  Ambassador)  who,  as  an  old  friend,  received  me  cor- 
dially, but  we  did  not  talk  politics.  He  gave  me  a  long  and  interesting 
account  of  a  visit  he  had  paid  with  Ozeroff  and  Haymerle  in  1860  to 
Cairo,  before  any  of  the  European  innovations  began.  With  Philip 
and  Pom  I  have  had  long  talks  about  Egypt,  and  a  little  about  affairs 
here. 

"  291  h  Sept.  (Sunday). —  Spent  the  day  on  board  the  Imogene  (the 
ambassadorial  despatch  boat)  with  Philip,  Pom,  and  Yorke  —  a  perfect 
summer's  day.  We  steamed  down  the  Bosphorus  to  the  Sea  of  Mar- 


1895]  Philip  Currie  on  Egypt  185 

mora,  landed  on  Bulwer's  island,  circumnavigated  Prinkipo,  and  then 
crossed  to  San  Stefano,  and  home  about  sunset,  the  walls  of  Stam- 
boul,  the  Golden  Horn,  and  the  Asiatic  shore  from  Scutari  upwards 
being  lit  up  with  the  evening  glow,  a  glorious  apparition. 

"  We  had  much  political  talk,  first  about  Egypt,  which  Philip  con- 
siders to  be  a  danger  to  us,  but  which  he  says  can  never  be  evacuated 
—  never  in  the  political  sense  of  counting  votes  at  an  English  election  — 
though  we  may  be  driven  out  of  it.  He  says  that  the  exclusion  of 
France  after  the  war  of  Tel-el-Kebir,  from  her  position  in  the  Joint 
Control,  was  entirely  unexpected  by  him.  He  was  away  from  the 
Foreign  Office  at  the  time,  and  nothing  surprised  him  more  than  to  hear 
it  had  been  decided  on.  It  was  contrary  to  all  our  declarations  and  all 
our  policy  up  to  that  point.  He  considers  that  if  the  French  had  de- 
clared from  the  outset  their  willingness  to  help  in  all  arrangements  and 
share  expenses  incurred,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  refuse  them  a 
renewal  of  their  position.  Lord  Salisbury  had  done  what  he  could  to 
fulfill  the  promise  of  evacuation,  but  the  Sultan's  refusal  to  ratify  the 
Drummond  Wolff  Convention  had  '  fortunately '  prevented  its  accom- 
plishment. The  French  policy  had  throughout  been  childish.  He  was 
inclined  to  agree  with  me  that  it  was  a  pity  the  attempt  of  Constitutional 
Government  in  Egypt  had  not  been  encouraged,  as  the  lack  of  some- 
thing of  the  sort  here  was  what  was  ruining  Turkey. 

"  Bulwer's  island  is  a  barren  and  not  very  attractive  little  rock,  of  a 
few  acres  in  extent,  with  some  rubbishy  buildings,  now  ruined,  which 
Bulwer  had  spent  much  money  on.  He  had  built  it  for  Princess 
Ypsilanti,  a  Greek  lady  whom  he  loved,  and  one  of  the  rooms  is  still 
decorated  with  a  mirror  let  into  the  ceiling,  in  which  she  could  survey 
her  charms.  The  Sultan  had  made  him  a  present  of  it,  and  he  had 
eventually  sold  it  at  a  fancy  price,  £10,000,  to  the  Khedive  Ismail.  It 
is  occupied  by  a  caretaker  who  keeps  a  few  lean  cows,  its  only  in- 
habitants. The  inner  court  of  the  house,  overgrown  with  a  yellow  rose 
tree,  run  wild,  and  a  clematis,  would  be  pretty  if  the  ruined  buildings 
were  less  mean. 

"At  San  Stefano  we  inspected  the  new  Russian  church,  a  memorial, 
not  yet  finished,  of  the  extreme  advance  of  the  Russian  army  in  1877. 

"  3O//i  Sept. —  To-day  Philip  told  me  the  history  of  the  Armenian 
trouble,  and  expressed  his  opinion  distinctly  that  the  Sultan  not  only 
knew  of  the  massacres,  but  had  himself  given  the  order  for  them  and 
approved  of  them.  I  think  this  extremely  probable  —  indeed  it  is  al- 
most inconceivable  that,  under  so  strong  a  despotism  as  is  the  present 
regime,  any  provincial  governor  or  commandant  should  have  dared  act 
thus  on  his  own  responsibility.  The  Sultan's  orders  probably  were  to 
stamp  out  the  rebellion.  The  mistake  Philip  seems  to  me  to  have  made, 
is  that  he  took  the  French  and  Russian  Ambassadors  into  his  counsels. 


1 86  The  Armenian  Trouble  [l%95 

They  were  sure  to  play  him  false.  He  is  now  in  a  very  difficult  and 
false  position,  for  they  do  not  back  him  up  fairly  at  home,  and  he  has 
used  such  threats  that  he  cannot  well  let  the  whole  thing  drop,  which 
would  have  been  the  wisest  course.  As  far  as  I  understand  his 
thoughts,  he  intends,  in  case  of  the  Sultan's  continued  refusal  to  accept 
the  English  ultimatum,  to  take  some  violent  action  with  the  fleet,  not 
here  nor  yet  at  Smyrna,  but  elsewhere.  He  asked  me  what  would  be 
the  effect  of  blockading  Jeddah  and  proclaiming  that  the  Sultan  had 
ceased  to  be  sovereign  of  the  Hejaz.  I  told  him  that  the  Grand  Sherif 
would  doubtless  succeed  to  the  Sultan's  power  at  Mecca  if  that  power 
were  destroyed,  but  that  he  must  not  count  on  any  portion  of  the 
population  joining  English  intervention.  Much  as  they  disliked  the 
Turks,  they  would  dislike  the  English  more. 

"  Communications  between  the  embassy  and  the  palace  are  all  but 
interrupted  at  the  present  moment,  nor  is  Philip  in  touch  with  any 
section  of  the  Turkish  Moslem  community.  His  information  depends 
almost  entirely  upon  what  he  learns  from  Christians  —  no  Moslem  dar- 
ing to  call  on  him.  Now  and  again  he  receives  a  letter  in  strict  con- 
fidence, but  very  seldom,  from  members  of  the  old  Liberal  party.  He 
counts  on  the  death  or  deposition  of  the  Sultan,  which  he  thinks  might 
take  place  at  any  moment,  and  he  would  favour  any  attempt  to  revive 
a  more  liberal  regime.  But,  until  there  is  a  question  as  between  the 
Sultan  and  his  Mohammedan  subjects,  he  says,  he  is  powerless  to  take 
action.  It  is  a  misfortune  of  the  position  that  England  has  only  treaty 
rights  of  intervention  in  favour  of  the  Christian  Armenians.  I  talked 
all  these  matters  over  with  Pom  as  we  rode  across  the  wooded  hills  in 
the  afternoon  to  Kilia. 

"  On  our  return  we  found  Yorke  and  Lady  Lilian  and  Clara  Single- 
ton just  returned  from  Stamboul,  where  they  had  witnessed  a  disturb- 
ance, which  may  prove  to  be  an  important  one,  between  a  body  of 
Armenians  and  the  authorities.  According  to  the  accounts  given  us 
oy  Philip  of  the  affair,  it  appears  that  some  days  ago  he  received  notice 
from  the  Armenian  Revolutionary  Committee  that  they  intended  making 
a  demonstration  in  favour  of  the  prompt  settlement  of  the  Armenian 
case.  They  were  to  assemble  in  Stamboul  and  present  a  petition  at  the 
Ministry.  This  seems  now  to  have  been  forcibly  prevented  —  a  number 
of  arrests  were  made  —  the  Armenians  fired  shots  —  a  Turkish  colonel 
in  full  uniform  was  seen  dead  in  the  street  —  the  Turks  were  allowed 
by  the  police  to  arm  themselves  with  cudgels  —  some  Armenians  were 
beaten  to  death  —  and  six  others  were  bayonetted  at  the  Zaptieh.  But 
accounts  differ  greatly.  The  cavass  who  escorted  the  Yorkes  declares 
that  his  party  was  menaced,  and  that  he  drew  his  revolver  to  protect 
them.  But  Yorke  assures  me  that  nothing  of  the  sort  took  place  as 
far  as  his  party  was  concerned.  All  they  saw  was  the  Turks  arming 


1895]  Riot  at  Constantinople  187 

themselves  with  the  cudgels  —  great  crowds,  and  men  being  carried 
away  in  carriages  with  their  arms  bound.  Still  it  ha's  produced  much 
excitement,  and  there  is  talk  of  revolution,  massacres,  and  who  knows 
what  more. 

"  ist  Oct. —  The  news  to-day  about  the  Armenian  riot  is  that  the 
deputation  arranged  by  the  Armenian  Revolutionary  Committee  con- 
sisted of  2,000  men,  who  were  to  meet  at  Kapu  and  to  march  to  the 
Ministry  (the  Porte),  while  a  deputation  of  women  were  to  go  to 
Yildiz.  On  their  assembling,  however,  the  police,  forewarned  of  their 
intention,  stopped  and  arrested  the  leaders.  The  Armenians  then  fired 
revolvers,  and  the  Bimbashi  of  the  Police  was  killed.  Arrests  were 
then  made,  the  police,  it  is  said,  conniving  at  the  Mohammedans  of  the 
quarter  arming  themselves  with  cudgels  and  beating  the  Armenian 
prisoners.  Sixty  Armenians  are  reported  killed  and  fifteen  of  the 
police.  The  last  news  is  that  1,000  Armenians,  with  some  women  and 
children,  are  being  besieged  in  a  church  in  the  Armenian  quarter.  The 
revolvers  and  knives  found  on  the  Armenians  arrested  were  all  of  one 
pattern,  a  fact  which  points  to  premeditation  of  defence,  if  not  of  at- 
tack. All  this  reminds  me  much  of  what  took  place  at  Alexandria  in 
1882  when  the  fleet  was  ordered  there.  I  expect  to  see  the  programme 
repeated  here.  There  will  be  a  cry  of  '  Europeans  in  danger  ' ;  the  fleet 
will  be  ordered  up  to  the  Sea  of  Marmora ;  some  British  sailors  will  be 
mobbed  on  shore;  a  British  Consul  will  be  assaulted;  and  Stamboul 
will  be  bombarded.  I  am  glad  I  am  here  to  exercise  what  slight  re- 
straining power  I  can,  though  I  am  glad  to  say  Philip  shows  no  sign  yet 
of  having  lost  his  head  or  lost  his  temper.  We  drove  in  the  evening  to 
the  aqueduct,  a  very  lovely  evening. 

"  2nd  Oct. —  I  went  in  the  Embassy  launch  to  Constantinople  to-day 
to  lunch  with  my  old  relative,  Walter  Blunt  Pasha.  We  landed  at  the 
railway  station  on  Seraglio  Point,  and  drove  across  the  bridge,  where 
all  things  had  returned  to  their  usual  quiet.  The  Pasha  tells  me  the 
Armenians  who  formed  the  deputation  had  been  warned  not  to  come 
in  large  numbers,  and  not  to  come  armed.  They  therefore  divided 
themselves  into  groups.  One  of  these  was  stopped  by  the  police,  and, 
an  altercation  arising,  the  Bimbashi  struck  the  leading  Armenian  with 
his  sword,  whereupon  the  man  nearest  him  drew  a  revolver  and  shot 
the  Bimbashi  through  the  head.  This  led  to  a  general  riot ;  arrests  were 
made  and  men  killed  on  both  sides.  There  seems  no  doubt  that  the 
Moslems  of  the  quarter  were  encouraged  to  arm  themselves  with  staves. 
He  says,  however,  that  the  Government  is  afraid  now  that  the  Softas 
who  took  part  in  the  riot  against  the  Armenians  will  continue  it  against 
the  Government.  The  Sultan,  he  says,  has  become  very  unpopular  in 
the  last  two  years,  and  everybody  would  really  be  glad  to  get  rid  of  him. 
Even  the  highest  officials  are  kept  in  a  state  of  tutelage  which  galls 


1 88  Curric's  View  of  Abdul  Hamid  [1895 

them  severely.  '  I  myself/  he  said,  '  could  not  so  much  as  go  away  for 
forty-eight  hours  to  Broussa  without  permission  from  the  Sultan  him- 
self. Neither  the  Minister  of  War  nor  the  Grand  Vizier  could  give  it 
me.'  The  Softas,  too,  are  tired  of  Abdul  Hamid,  who  they  think  is 
ruining  the  country.  The  army  has  been  unpaid  for  five  months. 

"  Norman,  a  newspaper  man,  came  in  and  told  me  tales  of  assaults 
and  assassinations  of  Armenians  last  night  by  the  mob.  But  as  yet 
neither  Europeans  nor  Greeks  have  been  molested.  I  do  not  think  the 
matter  is  likely  to  go  much  farther  at  present.  The  chief  Armenians 
went  to-day  to  the  palace  to  arrange  terms  for  the  men  shut  up  in  the 
churches,  and  are  believed  to  have  been  successful.  I  find  Philip  very 
strong  on  the  necessity  of  getting  rid  of  Abdul  Hamid.  '  We  have  come 
to  the  conclusion,'  he  said  to-day,  '  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  kill  him. 
To  depose  him  would  be  very  difficult,  perhaps  impossible.'  I  do  not 
suppose  that  he  would  do  this  by  any  direct  instigation,  but  he  would 
certainly  countenance  a  revolution  which  should  proceed  by  this  means. 
The  idea  is  in  the  air,  but  twenty  years  of  absolute  despotism  have 
weeded  out  the  more  venturesome  spirits. 

"  I  have  written  a  long  letter  on  the  political  situation  here  to  Lady 
Lytton,  who  will,  as  likely  as  not,  show  it  to  the  Queen,  as  she  is  now 
in  waiting  at  Balmoral.  Archibald  Lamb  has  arrived  from  England, 
Lady  Currie's  brother. 

"  yd  Oct. —  The  Queen's  Messenger,  old  Conway  Seymour,  was 
despatched  to-day.  So  I  was  busy  writing  letters.  Philip  went  in  with 
him  to  the  Porte  to  call  on  the  new  Grand  Vizier,  Kiamil  Pasha,  who 
is  supposed  to  be  more  favourable  to  English  policy  than  the  last,  Said 
Pasha.  But  I  fancy  there  is  little  real  difference.  I  remember  Kiamil 
at  Aleppo  in  1877,  a  little  man  of  Jewish  origin,  who  had  once  been  tutor 
to  the  Khedive  Tewfik. 

"  4th  Oct. —  In  the  launch  to  the  mouth  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  in  the 
afternoon  to  the  Sweet  Waters  of  Asia  in  the  ten-oared  caique,  a  pretty 
sight.  Philip  saw  the  Grand  Vizier  to-day,  having  missed  him  yester- 
day. He  tells  me  the  attacks  on  Armenians  still  continue,  and  the 
churches  are  still  full  of  refugees.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  the 
Armenians  are  being  pushed  on  by  the  Revolutionary  Committee.  It 
is  a  Secret  Committee  prompted,  Philip  tells  me,  by  Russian  Nihilists; 
and  the  trouble  has  been  caused  by  the  arrest  of  Armenians  suspected 
of  belonging  to  it,  and  their  torture  in  prison.  On  the  other  hand  mur- 
ders have  been  instigated  by  the  Committee,  of  Armenians  suspected 
of  betraying  their  cause.  They  seem  to  count  on  English  help,  and  talk 
of  an  independent  Armenia  under  an  English  Prince.  All  this  is,  of 
course,  impossible,  but  it  is  the  fault  of  our  people,  who  have  encouraged 
a  rising  they  are  really  powerless  to  assist.  On  the  other  hand  the 
Sultan,  Philip  thinks,  has  a  design  of  exterminating  the  Christian 


1895]  Professor  Vanibery  189 

Armenians  in  the  provinces,  just  as  the  Emperor  of  Russia  is  extermi- 
nating the  Catholic  Poles,  and  for  the  same  reason,  to  govern  the  coun- 
try more  easily.  The  delay  in  settling  the  Armenian  question,  raised  by 
England,  has  prompted  the  Committee  to  more  desperate  measures. 
It  is  a  curious  state  of  things,  which  Philip  says  can  only  end  in  the 
deposition  or  death  of  Abdul  Hamid.  We  discuss  these  matters  daily, 
Philip  and  I  and  McDonnell  and  Yorke. 

"  On  Monday  I  have  arranged  to  go  to  Pera  to  stay  with  General 
Blunt,  and  on  Wednesday  I  depart  for  Egypt. 

"  Sth  Oct. —  A  long  ride  with  McDonnell  in  the  forest  of  Belgrade. 
He  asked  me  whether  I  thought  Lady  Currie  would  make  a  good  Am- 
bassadress at  Paris.  I  had  heard  from  Lady  Galloway  that  Paris  had 
been  promised  to  Lord  Londonderry,  and  that  in  any  case  Philip  would 
not  have  it.  McDonnell,  however,  being  Lord  Salisbury's  private  sec- 
retary, doubtless  knows  best,  and  I  trust  Philip  may  have  it.  He  told 
me  some  interesting  particulars  about  his  chief,  his  many  virtues  and 
his  great  tolerance  for  those  who  had  none.  McDonnell  is  a  charming 
fellow,  with  much  of  the  Kerr  eccentricity,  for  he  is  through  his  mother 
a  Kerr. 

"  In  the  evening  a  large  dinner  party  to  the  Russian  and  Austrian 
Ambassadors.  ...  A  sudden  change  of  weather  in  the  night,  a  violent 
thunderstorm  with  heavy  rain,  and  now  a  strong  north  wind.  It  is 
time  I  was  away  in  Egypt. 

"  6th  Oct.  (Sunday). —  A  day  of  wind  and  rain,  no  one  moving  out 
of  doors  till  about  sunset,  when  I  took  Pom  out  for  a  walk  in  the 
Embassy  garden.  There  have  been  great  comings  and  goings  between 
Philip  and  the  other  Embassies,  for  they  are  preparing  some  joint  ac- 
tion on  the  Sultan  to  stop  the  rioting  in  Constantinople.  Pom  is  more 
communicative  now  than  Philip,  and  I  hope  I  have  been  able  to  in- 
doctrinate him  a  bit  in  my  ideas. 

"  Jth  Oct. —  The  weather  has  cleared,  and  I  drove  in  to  Pera  in  an 
open  carriage,  and  am  now  in  the  house  of  my  'relative'  at  51  rue 
Kabristan,  an  old-fashioned  little  box  of  a  place  with  a  bow  window 
looking  over  the  Golden  Horn.  General  Blunt  has  been  some  twenty 
years  in  the  Sultan's  service,  and  received  his  promotion  to  the  rank  of 
Ferik,  General  of  Division,  only  yesterday  —  a  fine-looking  old  man, 
who  has  no  other  duty  than  to  attend  the  Selamlik  every  Friday,  and 
wear  a  handsome  uniform. 

"  Professor  Vambery  came  to  dinner  and  Capt.  Norman,  and  we  had 
a  most  interesting  evening.  The  position  here  at  Constantinople,  ac- 
cording to  these,  is  this:  The  Armenians,  having  unquestionably  be- 
gun the  disturbance,  are  now  being  harried  by  the  joint  action  of  the 
police  and  the  mob.  The  mob  are  encouraged,  or  at  any  rate  allowed, 
to  break  into  the  khans  at  night  where  the  Armenians  congregate,  and 


190  The  Armenian  Question 

sometimes  into  private  houses,  and  beat  the  people  they  find  in  them  to 
death  with  sticks.  In  some  instances  the  police  force  admittance  at  the 
front  door  while  the  Armenian  escapes  at  the  back  door  only  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  fellows  waiting  for  him  in  the  street.  Thus  several 
hundreds  seem  to  have  been  killed.  The  mob  is  ostensibly  headed  by 
Softas,  students  of  the  University,  but  it  is  probable  that  these  are 
often  police  agents  in  the  Softa  dress.  At  any  rate  it  is  certain  that 
the  police  connive.  The  Armenian  churches  are  full  of  refugees. 
Norman  has  been  busy  going  round  to  these  and  to  the  Patriarch's 
house,  where  they  also  congregate,  and  told  us  many  tales. 

"  Vambery  was  very  communicative.  He  talked  strongly  against 
the  Sultan  in  this  business,  although  he  has  been  a  favourite  at  the 
palace.  He  declares  that,  though  superstitious,  the  Sultan  is  at  heart  a 
free  thinker,  his  religion  being  with  him  a  matter  of  policy,  and  he 
related  several  anecdotes  bearing  on  this  point.  It  is  the  Sultan's 
brother  and  heir  presumptive,  Rashid,1  who  is  a  true  '  fanatic.'  The 
Sultan  has  a  deliberate  political  purpose,  to  diminish  and  drive  out  the 
Armenians,  imitating  in  this  the  Emperor  of  Russia  in  his  treatment 
of  the  Poles  and  the  Jews.  Vambery  is  of  opinion  that  Abdul  Hamid 
cannot  long  retain  his  throne,  and  agrees  with  me  as  to  the  desirability 
of  renewing  the  Constitution  of  1876.  This  was  the  best  chance  Turkey 
ever  had  of  putting  herself  on  a  level  with  other  European  nations.  It 
is  the  best  chance  still.  But  it  can  hardly  be  under  the  present  Sultan. 

"  8th  Oct. —  With  Godfrey  Webb,  Mrs.  Homer,  Mrs.  Crawshay,  and 
Lord  Llandaff  (Matthews)  to  see  the  Museum  and  St.  Sophia's  — 
and  with  Norman  to  see  the  street  door  of  the  Armenian  church  in 
Pera. 

" qth  Oct. —  Left  Constantinople  for  Egypt. 

"  12th  Oct. —  Arrived  at  Sheykh  Obeyd,  Elhamdu  I'lllah. 

Epitome  of  the  Armenian  Question,  written  by  me  on  board  ship  on 
my  way  to  Alexandria. 

"  i.  The  Sultan,  to  prevent  Armenia  being  given  autonomy,  on  the 
ground  of  its  possessing  a  Christian  majority  in  any  one  province,  en- 
courages the  Mohammedans  of  the  Armenian  provinces  to  ill-treat  the 
Christians  so  as  to  force  them  to  emigrate. 

"  2.  The  Christian  Armenians,  under  the  direction  of  a  secret  Com- 
mittee organized  by  Russian  Nihilists,  and  encouraged  by  English  sym- 
pathy, refuse  to  pay  taxes  at  Samsun. 

"  3.  The  Sultan  orders  their  resistance  to  be  crushed  at  all  cost. 

"  4.  The  Turkish  military  Governor  crushes  it  with  great  barbarity. 

"  5.  The  English  Government,  under  Rosebery,  urged  by  its  Liberal 

1  Mohammed  Rashid,  afterwards  Sultan  Mohammed  V. 


1895]  Epitomized  191 

supporters,  intervenes.  Philip  Currie  is  urged  to  activity  in  repeated 
despatches. 

"  6.  The  '  Times,'  seeing  in  the  Armenian  question  a  useful  counter- 
irritant  to  the  Egyptian  question,  chimes  in. 

"  7.  The  English  Government  invites  the  French  and  Russian  Gov- 
ernments to  join  them.  This  at  Philip  Currie's  initiative. 

"  8.  These,  believing  the  English  Government  to  be  willing  to  parti- 
tion Turkey,  accept  the  proposal  of  joint  action.  N.B.  Rosebery 
probably  is  willing  to  partition  Turkey. 

"9.  Rosebery  goes  out  of  office  in  England.  In  Russia  Giers  dies 
and  is  succeeded  by  Labanov.  A  change  of  policy  ensues. 

"  10.  France  and  Russia,  knowing  that  Lord  Salisbury,  now  at  the 
Foreign  Office,  will  not  consent  to  the  partition  of  Turkey,  back  out  of 
joint  action  with  England. 

"  ii.  Salisbury,  to  avoid  questions  in  Parliament  and  to  gain  time, 
professes  to  go  on  alone. 

"  12.  The  Sultan,  secretly  reassured  at  Paris  and  St.  Petersburg, 
stiffens  his  back.  The  negotiations  at  Constantinople  are  dawdled  out. 

"  13.  Gladstone  makes  his  Armenian  speech  at  Chester.  Subscrip- 
tions are  opened  in  England. 

"  14.  Salisbury,  to  make  show  of  being  in  earnest,  orders  a  British 
fleet  to  the  Dardanelles. 

"  15.  The  Armenian  Committee,  encouraged  by  the  approach  of  the 
English  fleet,  and  believing  Salisbury  to  be  in  earnest,  and  that  England 
will  undertake  the  job  of  coercing  the  Sultan  single-handed,  organizes 
a  demonstration  at  Constantinople.  This  is  done  with  Philip's  privity. 

"  16.  The  Sultan  orders  the  Armenian  demonstration  to  be  crushed. 

"  17.  The  Armenians  are  crushed  at  Constantinople  with  great  bar- 
barity. 

"18.   ?? 

"  N.B.  My  impression,  gathered  from  what  Philip  has  told  me, 
strongly  is  ( I )  that  he  was  not  keen,  at  the  outset  of  the  Samsun  affair, 
to  intervene,  but  took  the  matter  up  under  Rosebery's  orders;  (2)  that 
he  was  responsible  for  the  partnership  with  France  and  Russia;  (3) 
that  having  embarked  in  the  business  he  has  since  made  it  one  personal 
to  himself;  (4)  that  for  the  last  six  months,  at  least,  he  has  been  in 
communication  with  the  Revolutionary  Committee,  probably  acting  in 
concert  with  them;  (5)  that  he  was  privy  to  the  demonstration  of  3Oth 
September,  probably  encouraged  it,  though  perhaps  not  its  being  armed. 
It  is  he  who  told  me  that  the  Armenian  Committee  was  organized  by 
Russian  Nihilists.  This  Committee  has  for  its  object,  not  union  with 
Russia,  but  the  establishment  of  an  independent  Armenia  under  Eng- 
lish protection.  They  would  take  annexation  to  Russia  as  a  pis-allcr. 
But  that  is  not  their  object." 


192  Russian  Policy  [1895 

I  found  out  afterwards  that  on  Giers'  death  the  Russian  policy  to- 
wards Armenia  underwent  an  entire  change,  though  Philip  Currie  was 
not  aware  of  it  at  the  time.  Instead  of  the  old  policy  of  protecting  the 
Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte,  Labanov's  policy  was  to  encourage  the 
Sultan  to  exterminate  the  Armenians  as  allies  of  Russia's  own  Nihilists. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  the  change  was  communicated  to  Nelidoff,  a 
diplomatist  of  the  old  school  of  Christian  protection ;  and  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  he  was  in  good  faith  in  continuing  his  own  sympathy  with 
the  Armenians,  and  expressing  it  to  Currie.  But  of  this  later. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  ADVANCE  ON  DONGOLA 

Oct. —  I  arrived  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  and  remained  there  only  a 
fortnight,  going  on  from  Cairo  up  the  Nile  to  visit  Upper  Egypt  and 
Nubia,  a  part  of  the  Nile  Valley  still  new  to  me.  I  travelled  on  this 
occasion  alone,  my  family  not  having  yet  arrived,  and  got  as  far  south 
as  what  was  then  the  extreme  frontier  of  Egypt  towards  the  Soudan. 

"29th  Oct. —  Left  Sheykh  Obeyd  for  the  Upper  Nile,  taking  Ali 
Suffraji  with  me  as  body  servant. 

"  Passing  through  Cairo  called  on  Gorst,  who  begged  me  to  inquire 
on  my  journey  whether  there  was  any  ill-feeling  in  Upper  Egypt  be- 
tween Moslems  and  Copts,  and  on  other  points  to  get  him  what  informa- 
tion I  could.  He  told  me  that  as  to  Philae,  the  reservoir  scheme  was 
for  the  time  laid  by,  the  finances  being  not  quite  safe,  and  the  political 
conditions  too  uncertain. 

"  At  sunset  I  drove  out  beyond  the  Kasr  el  Nil  bridge,  to  enjoy  the 
cool  breeze  and  see  the  villages  still  partly  surrounded  by  water  and  at 
nine  I  started  by  train.  I  travelled  all  night,  comfortably  enough  but 
for  the  exceeding  dust,  with  a  fine  moon  in  its  second  quarter,  and  a 
splendid  morning  star,  showing  the  country  still  half  inundated.  Peo- 
ple are  beginning  to  sow  their  beans  and  wheat  in  the  immense  flats  of 
mud.  In  other  places  the  plain  is  covered  with  sheep  feeding  on  the 
new  green  grass  before  it  is  ploughed.  Sugar  cane  is  the  only  growing 
crop. 

"  $oth  Oct. —  At  half-past  ten  reached  Girgeh,  where  the  railway 
ends,  and  took  boat  in  a  stern-wheel  steamer  leaving  at  one.  No  first- 
class  passenger  besides  myself,  except  three  French  engineers  connected 
with  the  railway  now  being  constructed  to  Keneh.  With  one  of  them, 
Megie,  I  had  some  interesting  talk.  He  has  been  thirty-five  years  in 
the  country,  having  come  as  a  boy  with  his  father,  a  protege  of  Linant 
Pasha  —  now  for  eight  years  in  Upper  Egypt  —  intelligent  and  kindly. 
He  tells  me  there  is  absolutely  no  ill-will  between  Moslems  and  Copts 
—  never  was  any,  even  in  the  time  of  Arabi  —  knew  Arabi  —  consid- 
ered him  a  brave  hommc  —  had  remained  at  Kaliub  till  after  the  bom- 
bardment, when  he  left  by  the  last  train  for  Suez  —  could  have  stayed 
on.  if  he  had  liked,  in  security  at  Cairo,  though  perhaps  not  in  the 
villages.  I  asked  him  whether  the  fellahin  were  better  off  now  or  in 

iga 


194  Eggs  One  Hundred  for  a  Piastre 

Said  Pasha's  time.  '  Dans  le  temps  de  Said,'  he  answered,  '  les  oeufs 
se  vendaient  cent  pour  une  piastre.  Voila  ce  .que  j'appelle  la  misere. 
Pour  le  bien  etre,  oui.  Us  etaient  a  leur  aise,  et  les  impots  etaient 
moins  eleves.  Mais  ils  n'etaient  pas  au  courant  de  la  civilisation.'  A 
characteristic  French  answer.  This  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  ideas 
even  intelligent  foreigners  have,  and  he  certainly  spoke  with  sympathy 
of  the  fellahin.  Stopped  for  the  night  at  Farshut,  where  they  are 
making  the  new  railway  bridge.  It  has  been  sweltering  hot  all  the 
afternoon,  thermometer  85,  but  cool  after  sunset. 

"3iJf  Oct. —  Travelling  due  east,  a  pleasant  wind  in  our  faces  — 
multitudes  of  birds,  not  yet  scared  away  by  the  tourists'  guns,  herons, 
pelicans,  b'ttle  white  herons,  cormorants,  pied  kingfishers,  hoopoes  — 
few  signs  of  European  life  —  immense  crops  of  millet,  taller  than  a 
camel  and  rider,  this  makes  the  banks  green.  The  Nile  has  fallen  three 
metres,  and  the  shadoufs  are  at  work.  This  is  the  season  to  see  the 
Upper  Nile,  or  any  part  of  it  for  that  matter.  I  never  had  a  pleasanter 
fortnight  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  than  since  the  I2th,  when  I  returned  there 
—  the  garden  a  paradise  of  birds  and  beasts,  two  wolves  every  evening 
in  the  palms  at  El  Kheysheh,  and  numberless  foxes  —  millions  of  spar- 
rows roosting  nightly  in  the  orange  trees  (so  that  the  whole  garden 
smelt  in  the  morning  like  a  bird-cage),  everything  perfection. 

"  Past  Keneh  there  are  splendid  reaches  of  the  river,  with  banks  beau- 
tifully wooded  with  sont  trees  in  full  flower  besides  abels,  nebuks,  and 
palms  of  both  sorts  —  no  lebbeks  nor  gemeysehs,  though  I  saw  a  huge 
dead  trunk  of  a  gemeyseh  by  the  water  side.  The  lebbek,  though  an 
old  Egyptian  tree,  seems  to  have  become  almost  extinct  till  the  present 
century,  when  it  was  reintroduced  with  the  other  modern  improve- 
ments. There  can  be  none  in  the  country  older  than  seventy  or  eighty 
years,  big  trees  as  they  are. 

"  ist  Nov. —  Luxor.  The  Luxor  Hotel  is  open,  but  empty  with  the 
exception  of  an  invalid  doctor  (Dr.  Ruffer)  and  his  wife,  and  New- 
bury,  an  archaeologist,  who  comes  in  for  meals,  having  been  here 
through  the  summer.  Tourists  there  are  none.  I  went  out  before  sun- 
rise and  looked  at  the  temple,  and  later  to  Karnak.  The  ancient 
Egyptians  seem  always  to  have  built  on  the  Nile  mud,  a  mean  founda- 
tion. 

"  The  Consul,  Ahmed  Eff.  Mustafa,  called  on  me  and  invited  me  to 
luncheon,  an  Egyptian  meal  served  with  much  hospitality.  He  is  an 
honest,  good  man,  of  the  fellah  type,  very  proud  of  his  visitors'  book, 
which  dates  from  1855,  and  is  a  pretty  complete  history  of  modern 
Egypt.  I  found  my  brother  Francis'  name  and  Alice's,  and  Lady 
Herbert's  party,  and  the  Mures  and  Spencers,  who  were  here  in  daha- 
biyahs  in  (the  autumn  of)  1863,  and  Lady  Dufferin's  in  1858,  with  a 
vast  number  of  others  recalling  old  memories,  Strangford's,  Beaufort's, 


1895]  Minshatti  Bey  195 

down  to  '  H.  M.  Stanley's  of  the  "  New  York  Herald," '  and  General 
Gordon's  in  1884,  and  Lord  Waterford's  last  year,  who  shot  himself  a 
month  ago  —  nearly  all  dead  now. 

"  2nd  Nov. —  Across  the  river  before  sunrise  to  the  statue  of  Mem- 
non  and  the  temples  of  Gournah  and  Medinet  Habou.  The  latter  is 
a  really  fine  thing,  and  I  was  able  to  see  it  alone  without  guides  or  fel- 
low sightseers.  But  I  am  left  with  the  impression  that  the  Nile  itself, 
*dth  its  great  flow  of  water  and  its  ever  green  banks  and  eternal  youth 
is  the  really  interesting  thing,  far  finer  than  its  monuments.  These  are 
interesting  as  part  of  the  river's  history,  not  the  Nile  because  of  them. 
The  greatest  of  human  works  are  a  very  small  matter,  after  all,  and 
the  world  would  be  hardly  poorer  if  mankind  had  never  been  —  greatly 
richer,  indeed,  seeing  how  much  beauty  we  have  destroyed.  To  Karnak 
again  in  the  evening,  and  rode  through  by  the  light  of  the  full  moon. 

"  yd  Nov. —  Again  across  the  river  to  see  some  minor  monuments 
not  worth  visiting.  I  was  followed  by  a  troop  of  little  girls  whom  the 
tourists  have  debauched  with  bakshish.  I  thought  at  first  they  were 
Ghazawiyeh,  so  shameless  were  they,  a  sight  I  have  never  seen  before 
in  all  the  lands  of  Islam.  Coming  in,  I  received  a  visit  from  Minshatti 
Bey  the  Ababdeh  Sheykh  to  whom  I  had  sent  to  tell  him  I  was  here. 
He  is  a  delightful  old  man,  whom  our  military  people  have  quarrelled 
with,  suspecting  him  of  Mahdist  tendencies.  Kitchener  deposed  him 
from  the  Sheykhat  and  put  in  another,  Beshir  Bey,  in  his  place,  who 
now  lives  at  Assouan  under  the  eye  of  the  Government,  and  does  their 
business  with  the  tribe.  But  Minshatti  is  the  real  Sheykh.  The  young 
Khedive,  when  he  was  here,  sent  for  Minshatti,  and  made  much  of  him, 
and  gave  him  a  robe  of  honour.  This  was  made  one  of  the  points 
of  Kitchener's  quarrel  with  the  Khedive.  The  old  man  tells  me  that 
the  Sirdar  now  treats  him  better,  and  he  is  allowed  to  go  about  where 
he  likes,  and  is  not  molested  by  the  police.  He  promised  —  but  I  think 
rather  doubtingly,  for  he  is  probably  afraid  —  to  send  one  of  his  rela- 
tions with  me  if  I  went  travelling,  as  I  intend  to  do  this  winter,  among 
the  Ababdeh. 

"  Had  some  talk  with  Dr.  Ruffer,  who  is  a  distinguished  man  of 
science,  a  bacteriologist.  He  had  a  paralytic  stroke  six  months  ago 
(it  was  a  case  of  blood  poisoning  caused  by  one  of  his  experiments), 
and  is  here  for  his  health.  He  is  looking  for  bacteria  in  the  desert 
sand. 

"  Later  I  went  to  Minshatti's  house,  which  is  just  outside  the  town, 
a  clean,  new  building,  where  he  received  me  with  carpets  spread  on  the 
mastaba,  a  nice  cool  place.  I  asked  him  about  the  Soudan,  and  the 
Mahcli,  and  the  Khalifa,  and  he  told  me  much  that  was  interesting. 
He  never  saw  the  Mahdi  himself,  but  several  of  his  relations  knew  him 
when  he  was  a  najar  (carpenter),  a  boat  builder  at  Dongola.  He  was 


196  Dongola  under  the  Khalifa  [1895 

an  alem  and  a  faki ;  but  his  political  fortunes  were  the  work  originally 
of  Jaffir  Bey,  who  had  quarrelled  with  the  Government.  He  said  the 
Mahdi  was  a  good  man;  and  as  long  as  he  lived  everybody  in  the 
Soudan  believed  in  him  as  the  true  Mahdi.  But  the  Khalifa  had 
ruined  everything.  The  reason  of  the  Baggara  power  was  that  the 
Khalifa  had  put  forward  all  the  best  men  of  the  other  tribes  to  fight, 
and  these  had  got  killed  in  the  wars,  while  the  Baggaras  were  held  in 
reserve  and  reaped  the  profits.  The  Khalifa  had  got  possession  of 
all  the  firearms  in  the  country  on  the  pretext  of  having  them  in  readi- 
ness to  resist  an  invasion,  and  so  the  Baggaras,  his  own  tribe,  were  the 
only  ones  thus  armed.  El  Nejumi  had  made  his  expedition,  which 
ended  at  Toski  [this  was  the  battle  won  by  Grenfell,  see  later],  be- 
cause an  attempt  had  been  made  to  poison  him,  and  he  wanted  to  get 
away  somewhere  where  he  should  be  his  own  master.  The  chiefs  of 
the  tribes  when  not  killed  in  war  had  been  got  rid  of  on  various  pre- 
texts by  the  Khalifa.  They  had  been  accused  of  treason  and  put  into 
a  kind  of  fetter  which  Minshatti  described  to  me  as  being  a  long  tube 
of  iron  holding  the  arms  straight  out  from  the  shoulder  to  the  wrist. 
A  man  with  his  arms  thus  fettered  was  helpless  and  died  in  a  month. 
Thus  only  children  were  left  in  the  tribes,  and  the  Baggaras,  an  ignoble 
tribe  with  whom  the  Jaalin  and  Kababish  and  Hadendowas  and 
Ababdeh  would  not  in  former  times  intermarry,  had  got  all  power  into 
their  hands. 

"  I  did  not,  however,  gather  from  him  that  the  fellahin  were  ill  off. 
He  told  me  durra  was  at  three  reals  the  ardeb,  and  all  things  were 
plentiful.  But  the  richer  people  suffered  exactions,  so  that  it  was  the 
common  cry  that  the  Baggaras'  rule  was  worse  than  the  rule  of  the 
Turks.  He  talked  a  good  deal  about  Salatin  (Slatin)  and  Neufelt. 
He  said  that  an  expedition  from  the  Government  would  be  joined  by 
everyone  in  the  Soudan.  I  asked  him  if  it  would  be  so  if  the  expedi- 
tion was  an  English  one.  He  said  that  the  opinion  now  in  the  Soudan 
had  changed,  and  that  the  people  there  no  longer  regarded  the  gufara 
(infidels,  meaning  Christians)  as  they  did  ten  years  ago.  Many  of 
them  had  been  wounded  and  taken  prisoners,  and  had  afterwards  been 
released,  and  had  related  at  home  that  the  kufara  had  treated  them 
well.  As  Minshatti  was  certainly  suspected  of  being  in  league  with 
the  Mahdists,  and  probably  was  so  a  few  years  ago,  his  evidence  is  of 
more  value  than  most.  But  I  expect  that  the  Baggaras  are  stronger 
in  the  country  than  he  quite  makes  out.  The  noble  tribes  are  doubtless 
jealous  of  them,  as  there  are  always  jealousies  among  Arab  tribes. 
Of  his  own  position  he  said  that  he  was  one  of  the  three  great  Sheykhs 
of  the  Ababdeh,  the  others  being  Beshir  and  Saleh  Ibn  Khali f eh,  lately 
killed  at  Murad.  They  each  used  to  received  £40  a  month  from  the 
Government,  but  Beshir's  allowance  had  been  reduced  to  £32,  and  his 


1895]  Kom  Ombo  and  Assouan  197 

own  to  £5.  He  asked  me  to  try  and  get  his  raised.  I  said  I  would  try 
to  do  so,  but  fear  there  is  no  chance. 

"4th  Nov. —  On  board  the  Ibis.  We  passed  Erment  this  morning 
where  there  are  many  lebbek  and  gemeyseh  trees  apparently  twenty 
years  old,  also  larger  factories  and  some  cotton  cultivation.  I  did  not 
notice  any  dogs  there,  though  Erment  is  famous  for  its  large  rough 
breed.  The  dogs  generally  of  the  Upper  Niles  are  rougher  than  those 
in  the  north.  Matana,  a  beautifully  wooded  place,  was  one  of  the 
Khedive  Ismail's  properties.  Esneh  in  the  afternoon,  away  from  the 
river  with  two  square  masses  of  ancient  stonework  on  mounds  of  rub- 
bish. Stopped  for  the  night  at  Silsilis,  the  moon  very  splendid,  as  red 
and  bright  as  a  fire  lit  just  under  it  when  it  rose. 

"  My  companions  on  board  are  three  or  four  English  officers  of  the 
Egyptian  army,  with  the  limited  conversation  of  their  kind.  But  I 
like  young  Broadwood  who  commands  the  cavalry  at  Wady  Haifa. 

"  $th  Nov. —  Some  attractive  desert  places  on  the  left  bank  where 
cultivation  has  been  abandoned  and  its  place  taken  by  half  a  grass  and 
green  bushes  —  the  palms  gone  wild.  There  are  a  good  many  horses 
turned  out,  tethered  in  the  barley  to  graze,  and  on  the  durra.  Some  of 
them  are  bays  with  white  faces  and  four  white  legs,  probably  of  the 
Dongola  breed  —  tall,  with  straight  shoulders  and  drooping  quarters. 
Kom  Ombo  close  to  the  river,  temple  and  fort  on  a  natural  mound. 
The  river  is  now  generally  from  a  kilometre  to  a  mile  broad,  a  few 
mud  banks  beginning  to  show  in  places. 

"  At  1 130  arrived  at  Assouan.  It  has  a  European  appearance.  The 
approach  to  it  is  fine.  Having  made  acquaintance  on  board  with  Mus- 
tafa Bey  Shakir,  deputy  mamur  of  Assouan,  I  inquired  of  him  what 
government  lands  there  were  for  sale  —  this  for  Evelyn,  who  has  an 
idea  of  purchasing  here  —  and  he  sent  me  on  a  donkey  to  look  at  a 
building  belonging  to  the  Government  known  as  the  Mukhtab  el  Miri 
el  Buhari,  about  'two  miles  down  the  river.  There  are  well  wooded 
gardens  near  it,  which  the  guard  said  might  be  bought  from  the  Jel- 
lahin  owners  for  £10  and  £15  the  feddan.  The  Government  is  asking 
£300  for  the  building.  In  a  few  years  the  railway  will  be  brought  near 
it,  and  it  might  not  be  a  bad  purchase. 

"  Then  by  train  to  Shellal,  put  my  things  on  board  the  steamer,  and 
spent  'the  evening  sailing  about  Philae  and  the  edge  of  the  cataract,  one 
of  the  loveliest  things  I  remember  of  the  kind.  Indeed,  the  only  recol- 
lection I  can  compare  with  it  is  the  boating  expedition  we  made  on  the 
great  tank  at  Hyderabad  ten  years  ago.  It  was  a  perfect  evening,  and 
the  rocks  and  swirling  water  in  the  twilight,  and  the  boat  with  tin- 
Berber  crew  singing  were  everything  one  could  imagine  in  Philrc. 

"  6th  Nov. —  Rode  on  donkey -back  before  sunrise  to  see  the  position 
of  the  proposed  dam,  which  is  a  mile  or  so  below  Philae.  Philae  as  it 


198  Philce  Still  Unspoiled  [1895 

is,  is  perhaps  the  one  perfect  thing  in  the  world,  and  anything  added  to 
or  taken  from  it  would  probably  spoil  it.  So  I  trust  they  will  leave  it 
alone.  At  the  same  time  if  they  would  be  content  with  banking  the 
river  to  the  natural  height  of  the  Nile  at  flood,  I  do  not  see  that  it 
need  do  a  great  harm.  But  of  course  they  want  more,  and  to  make  it 
the  biggest  engineering  thing  in  the  universe.  The  situation  is  tempt- 
ing to  an  engineer,  as  the  solid  boulders  of  granite  would  make  it  an 
heroic  bit  of  stonework. 

"  At  eight  we  started  again  up  the  river.  The  change  of  scenery 
above  the  cataract  is  most  sudden  and  complete,  made  more  so  by  the 
as  sudden  and  complete  change  in  the  inhabitants,  who  are  here  Berbers. 
Indeed,  Egypt  ends  abruptly  at  Assouan.  The  Soudan  begins  at  Philae. 
These  upper  reaches,  between  piled-up  granite  boulders,  are  very  at- 
tractive, as  there  are  many  places  one  might  use  as  hermitages,  islands 
of  rock  with  a  few  sont  trees  and  palms,  some  having  the  remains  on 
them  of  buildings.  At  Kalabsheh  a  new  and  still  narrower  gate  is 
passed.  This  is  where  the  French  chose  their  site  for  the  dam.  It 
is  difficult  to  say  which  of  the  two  sites  would  be  the  best  for  the 
purpose.  Thus,  all  day  long,  between  endless  granite  boulders  on  the 
eastern  shore,  and  the  same,  partly  covered  with  drift  sand,  on  the 
western,  the  cultivation  almost  nil,  a  narrow  fringe  of  palms  and  sonts 
and  seyyals,  with  here  and  there  a  patch  of  vegetables  sown  at  the 
river's  edge  or  a  field  of  durra. 

"  yth  Nov. —  We  stopped  for  the  night  at  Dendur,  and  in  the  morn- 
ing light  found  ourselves  outside  the  narrow  gorge,  and  among  drifts 
of  nefud  —  red  sand  —  on  the  western  bank,  apparently  encroaching. 
Broadwood  tells  me  there  is  a  long  line  of  nefuds  running  north-west 
which  is  impassable  for  camels.  This,  as  I  understand  him,  west  of 
the  road  to  the  oases.  But  I  doubt  if  he  has  been  far  enough  to  know. 

"  I  have  made  friends  on  board  with  a  military  doctor,  Mohammed 
Eff.  Towfik,  who  began  by  quarrelling  with  me  as  an  Englishman 
for  the  occupation  of  Egypt,  but  we  speedily  came  to  an  understand- 
ing, and  I  find  him  to  be  a  friend  of  Mohammed  Abdu's,  and  a  staunch 
Nationalist  of  the  fellah  party.  Though  still  a  young  man,  perhaps 
thirty-five,  he  remembers  the  Russian  war  of  1877,  and  knew  Arabi. 
He  told  me  very  frankly  that  there  were  people  who  suspected  me  of 
having  stood  in  with  our  diplomacy  in  1882.  It  was  pleasant  to  find 
a  man  so  fearless  and  outspoken,  especially  as  much  of  our  conversa- 
tion was  within  hearing  of  the  English  officers,  Broadwood,  Lawrie,  and 
a  third,  Healy,  who  understands  Arabic.  The  doctor  is  a  fellah,  pro- 
prietor of  300  feddans  near  Benisouef,  and  declares  that  the  fellahin 
are  in  a  worse  condition  materially  than  before  the  rebellion.  I  doubt 
this.  But  I  think  it  likely  he  is  right  about  Upper  Egypt.  Certainly 
all  this  district  south  of  Assouan  shows  traces  of  decline;  and  the 


1895]  English  and  Egyptian  Officers  199 

Berber  population  is  lean  and  hungry.  He  was  eager  to  know  about 
the  Armenian  question,  and  about  the  condition  of  India,  and  I  ex- 
plained both  to  him.  He  is  a  very  intelligent,  worthy  man,  of  the 
kind  most  required.  He  admitted  freely  the  personal  liberty  now 
enjoyed  and  the  liberty  of  the  press,  but  complained  bitterly  of  there 
being  no  self-government,  no  constitution.  I  agree  with  him  on  all 
points,  except  that  of  the  material  poverty.  He  is  opposed  to  'the 
reservoirs,  but  in  favour  of  an  advance  on  the  Soudan,  at  least  to 
Dongola.  My  own  impression  is  that  it  would  have  been  best  in 
1885  to  have  made  Assouan  the  boundary  of  Egypt,  instead  of  Wady 
Haifa.  It  is  a  much  stronger  frontier  and  far  less  costly.  The  only 
reason  for  an  advance  now  is  to  forestall  a  European  one,  either  Italian 
or  French. 

"  We  stopped  for  the  night  at  Korosko,  and  I  went  ashore  with  the 
Commandant,  Ibrahim  Bey  Fathy,  a  fine  looking  fellah  soldier,  who 
showed  us  round  'the  barracks  by  starlight.  They  are  making  surveys 
for  a  railway  to  Murad,  and  Broadwood  tells  me  they  intend,  when- 
ever the  advance  to  Khartoum  is  made,  to  take  that  route.  But  there 
is  nothing  in  contemplation  at  present.  The  English  officers  are  good 
fellows,  and  are  very  polite  and  amiable  'to  their  Egyptian  brother 
officers ;  but  it  is  easy  to  see  that  there  is  no  real  intimacy  or  knowledge 
of  each  other's  thoughts.  Broadwood  complains  of  this ;  and  I  should 
think  that,  if  it  came  to  a  pinch,  the  Egyptian  officers  could  not  be  im- 
plicitly relied  on.  I  fancy  they  all  resent  the  superior  commands  being 
English.  They  do  not  mess  with  the  English  officers,  and  live  much 
apart.  This  is  no  doubt  partly  because  the  English  know  very  little 
Arabic.  Ibrahim  Bey  spoke  excellent  English,  and  dined  with  us  on 
board.  There  are  two  young  fellows,  Englishmen  of  the  Royal  En- 
gineers, who  have  been  sent  out  here  to  make  the  railroad  to  Murad, 
excellent  ingenuous  youths  of  perhaps  twenty-three  or  twenty-four, 
to  whom  it  is  great  fun  and  solid  advancement,  as  they  are  given  the 
rank  of  majors  in  the  Egyptian  army.  This  is  a  sample  of  what  leads 
to  discontent  among  the  native  officers,  for  the  work  is  an  absolutely 
simple  one,  and  could  be  performed  by  any  of  their  own  engineers. 
Yet  'these  young  Englishmen  have  it.  Again,  the  command  of  the  cav- 
alry at  Haifa  is  left  during  the  summer  months  to  a  native  officer,  but 
as  soon  as  the  winter  begins,  when  there  are  manoeuvres  and  parades 
of  the  kind  soldiers  love,  young  Broadwood  comes  to  take  his  place. 
My  friend  the  doctor  is  eloquent  on  these  things,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
reflects  the  general  sentiment. 

"8th  Nov. —  Passed  the  battlefields  at  ...  and  Toski,  the  former 
fought  with  an  advanced  body  of  the  Dervishes,  the  latter  with  the 
main  body  under  Wad  el  Nejumi.  The  English  officers  gave  me  an 
account  of  the  two  actions.  By  their  showing,  it  was  little  more  than 


200  The  Victory  of  Toski  [1895 

a  massacre,  for  the  Dervishes  were  in  the  last  stage  of  exhaustion  from 
hunger  and  thirst,  their  camels  dying,  and  their  women  and  children. 
The  way  they  had  come  is  still  marked  by  the  skeletons  left  on  the 
sand.  They  marched  some  five  miles  from  the  river,  along  the  left 
bank,  sending  the  women  and  children  at  night  to  get  water,  the 
English-Egyptian  army  meanwhile  cruising  comfortably  parallel  to 
them  in  boats.  They  had  forced  the  Berber  inhabitants  of  the  left 
bank  to  cross  over  the  river  and  take  all  eatable  things  with  them,  so 
that  Nejumi's  army  found  nothing.  Then,  when  the  Dervishes  were 
quite  worn  out,  the  troops  were  landed  and  drove  the  dervishes  into 
a  gully,  where  these  made  their  final  stand,  and  were  all  shot  down,. 
Mohammed  Towfik,  who  was  there,  says  that  of  all  the  4,000  who  left 
Dongola  with  Nejumi,  only  300  combatants  remained  to  fight  at  Toski. 
The  action  at  ...  was  a  smaller  affair  than  Toski,  and,  if  I  under- 
stood rightly,  one  of  cavalry  on  the  Egyptian  side.  The  left  bank  in 
this  part  is  a  desolate  region  of  drift  sand  with  a  few  bushes,  but  at 
Toski  there  is  palm  cultivation  for  a  mile  or  two.  The  right  bank, 
where  there  is  no  sand,  is  mostly  planted. 

"  At  four  we  came  to  Abu  Simbel  and  stopped  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  so  that  we  were  able  to  land  and  look  at  the  temple.  Broadwood 
showed  me  a  pompous  marble  tablet  let  into  the  rock  outside,  of  which 
he  was  ashamed.  It  recorded  the  gallant  victory  of  General  Grenfell 
over  '  the  rebels.'  The  temple  is  very  fine,  and  has  the  great  merit  of 
being  no  ruin,  but  a  perfectly  habitable  place  cut  out  of  the  rock,  and 
very  little  injured  by  time.  There  was  a  party  outside  it  clearing  away 
the  sand.  There  is  a  grave,  too,  where  an  English  officer  is  buried  who 
happened  to  die  on  board  a  passing  steamer  — '  a  rotten  place,'  Laurie 
remarked,  '  to  bury  an  Englishman  in.'  The  Berbers  are  a  poor, 
narrow-chested,  feeble,  half-starved  people,  reminding  one  much  of 
the  natives  of  Southern  India.  There  can  hardly  be  a  greater  contrast 
than  between  them  and  the  Egyptian  fellahin.  The  Berbers  are  ex- 
empted from  recruiting,  and  should  be  exempted  from  taxation.  They 
live  almost  entirely  on  dates,  and  are  much  subject,  it  is  said,  to  fever. 
At  night  we  passed  a  Government  steamer  having  on  board  the  English 
acting  commandant  of  Wady  Haifa,  Lewis,  a  little  talkative  man  of 
whom  Broadwood  and  Laurie,  who  are  fine  young  fellows,  made  light. 
We  stopped  to  pay  him  a  visit  and  then  went  on  in  the  dark. 

"  gth  Nov. —  Arrived  at  Wady  Haifa,  a  beautiful  cool  morning,  with 
a  strong  north  wind  blowing  over  the  plain.  Wady  Haifa  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  being  placed  where  the  hills  are  low  and  stand  back  from 
the  river.  Otherwise  a  quite  uninteresting  place  —  low  military  huts 
fronting  the  river,  with  bits  of  trees  and  gardens  about  them,  officers' 
quarters  and  the  rest. 

"  I  lunched  at  the  Commandant's  quarters  with  Lewis,  who  has 


1895]  Wady  Haifa  and  S arras  201 

returned,  and  then  went  with  Broadwood  to  Sarras  by  train.  From 
the  railway  one  sees  the  cataracts  well,  a  wild  and  pretty  country  wi'th 
plenty  of  small  trees,  principally  urdi,  a  kind  of  acacia,  on  the  islands. 
The  palms  have  been  all  cut  down  by  the  Dervishes  in  their  hunger. 
They  occupied  Sarras  for  two  years,  and,  Broadwood  tells  me,  had  no 
commissariat  of  any  kind,  living  on  anything  they  could  get.  They 
used  to  make  raids  on  the  villages  under  Government  protection,  and 
on  one  occasion  cleared  out  Towfikieh,  the  civilian  quarter  of  Wady 
Haifa,  killing  some  600,  and  driving  the  Greek  drink-sellers  into  the 
river,  where  several  were  drowned.  The  country  between  Wady  Haifa 
and  Sarras  has  been  in  part  re-peopled,  but  beyond  Sarras  it  is  still 
No  Man's  Land,  the  Dervish  out-post  being  now  at  Akasheh,  100  miles 
away.  We  were  entertained  in  the  fortified  camp  by  Sellem  Bey,  an 
English  officer,  who  recaptured  Sarras  from  the  Dervishes,  a  good  fel- 
low and  intelligent. 

"  loth  Nov.  (Sunday). —  Walked  round  the  camp  with  Broadwood 
and  then  back  to  Haifa  in  time  to  see  the  camel  corps,  275  strong, 
marching  in  from  a  field  day  —  a  really  fine  sight  —  the  camels  mostly 
white  ones. 

"  Several  Berbers  came  to  seek  my  intervention  with  Lewis  to  get 
permission  to  return  to  Dongola,  their  native  country.  They  told  me 
that  there  would  be  amdn  for  them  there;  that  the  Khalifa  was  pleased 
at  the  return  of  refugees,  and  that  'they  could  re-occupy  their  lands 
without  hindrance ;  that  there  was  less  oppression  than  there  had  been, 
and  that  they  would  be  better  off  there  than  here ;  that  the  population 
of  Dongola  had  been  so  thinned  by  the  emigration  of  seven  years  ago, 
and  afterwards  by  the  famine,  that  there  was  land  for  all  comers,  dates 
in  plenty,  dtirra  at  thirty  piastres  the  ardeb,  and  wheat  at  fifty.  I 
asked  them  about  the  taxes,  and  they  told  me  that  the  Khalifa  took  a 
tithe  in  kind,  but  that  the  Baggaras  entrusted  with  the  government  did 
this  in  a  very  arbitrary  way,  as,  for  instance,  if  there  was  an  ardcb 
of  dates,  they  would  count  it  an  ardcb  and  a  half ;  also  that  nobody 
dared  make  a  display  of  wealth,  all  superfluity  being  taken  to  the  bcyt 
el  mal.  People,  however,  were  not  interfered  with  if  they  were  con- 
tent to  cultivate  a  few  feddans  and  live  on  the  produce.  If  they  made 
money,  they  must  hide  it  in  the  ground.  As  far  as  I  could  gather  from 
them,  they  considered  the  independence  of  the  country  (wdtani)  from 
the  Government  an  advantage,  now  that  there  was  no  longer  excessive 
oppression.  They  assured  me  that,  out  of  4,000  or  5,000  refugees  in 
Egypt,  most  would  be  glad  to  return.  I  promised  to  talk  to  Lewis  about 
it,  and,  failing  his  permission,  to  bring  their  general  case  before  Cromer. 
It  seems  absurd  to  keep  them  starving  in  Egypt,  now  they  are  willing 
to  return. 

"  I  left  Haifa  with  Lewis  in  the  Government  steamer  for  Assouan  — 


202  Military  Talk  [1895 

with  us  several  of  the  officers  who  were  going  as  far  as  Sarras  on  a 
shooting  excursion.  I  noticed  a  pair  of  hubaras  (frilled  bustards)  on 
the  right  bank,  and  had  seen  one  yesterday  between  Haifa  and  Sarras. 
We  stopped  at  four,  and  they  all  went  shooting  except  me,  bringing 
back  a  few  ducks,  gadwells,  shovellers,  and  teals,  also  a  snipe  and  a 
cormorant.  Sarras  is  a  very  pretty  place,  with  a  lake  in  the  sandhills 
well  grown  over  with  tamarisks,  unlike  anything  I  have  seen  north  of 
the  Fayum  —  a  village  and  a  little  cultivation  in  the  tamarisk  scrub, 
just  now  beautifully  green. 

"  Much  military  talk  in  the  evening,  my  host  being  a  loquacious  little 
man  with  a  crudest  of  ideas  political.  According  to  him,  we  are  to 
have  an  English  fleet  in  two  years'  time  which  will  enable  us  to  do  what 
we  like  in  the  world,  when  we  are  to  annex  Egypt  and  Constantinople 
too.  An  empty-headed  little  fellow,  who  has  been  eight  years  in  the 
Egyptian  service  and  has  acquired  a  certain  command  of  qui-hi  Arabic 
most  comic,  which  he  imagines  to  be  the  purest  dialect  —  all  pronounced 
as  written,  in  a  plain  English  accent.  But  his  servants  and  men  are 
used  to  it  and  make  out  his  meaning.  The  relations  between  the  Eng- 
lish officers  and  the  natives  seem  'to  be  much  what  they  are  in  India  — 
that  is  to  say,  there  is  absolutely  no  community  of  ideas  or  sympathy  on 
either  side.  Broadwood  and  one  or  two  of  them  try  to  be  polite  and 
kind,  but  they  know  so  little  Arabic,  and  have  so  little  knowledge  of 
Eastern  good  manners  that  they  are  unintentionally  rude  and  inspire 
no  affection,  only  just  such  respect  as  their  power  to  reward  and 
punish  gives.  They  would  be  deserted,  I  am  sure,  by  their  men  if  it 
came  to  any  real  difficulty.  They  seem  to  feel  their  position  rather 
a  precarious  one,  and  would  all  leave  the  Khedive's  service  if  the  British 
occupation  ceased. 

"  nth  Nov. —  Arrived  at  Korosko  at  four.  Walked  to  the  top  of 
the  hill  overlooking  the  road  to  Abu  Hamid,  the  road  Gordon  took  on 
his  last  journey.  It  is  a  rough  bit  of  country,  a  wilderness  of  black 
wadies  and  ravines  which  extends  they  say  for  twenty  miles,  when  the 
open  plain  or  plateau  begins.  The  young  engineers  pointed  out  the 
road  of  their  new  railway. 

"  Dined  at  the  Egyptian  officers'  mess.  Here  at  Korosko  the  bat- 
talion is  wholly  Egyptian,  a  really  capital  set  of  fellah  officers  com- 
manded by  Fathy  Bey,  a  big  fellah  Colonel  reminding  me  not  a  little 
of  Arabi  in  1881.  They  mess  together  and  live  on  the  friendliest 
terms ;  and  here,  entertaining  Lewis  and  me,  and  the  two  young  engi- 
neers, their  demeanour  was  quite  different  from  what  I  had  noticed  at 
Haifa,  and  they  seemed  to  be  most  pleasant  in  their  relations  with  'the 
English  officers.  At  Haifa  they  chafe  at  being  under  them.  Here 
they  are  on  an  equal  footing.  I  sat  between  Fathy  Bey  and  a  captain, 
Emir  Eff.  Fowzi,  the  latter  a  very  good  fellow  wi'th  whom  I  talked 


1895]  A  Disciple  of  Pasteur  203 

much  in  Arabic  about  affairs  in  Arabia,  at  Constantinople,  and  in 
India,  and  in  Tunis.  He  had  just  been  on  the  pilgrimage  and  com- 
plained greatly  of  the  Ottoman  misgovernment  there.  We  also  talked 
about  Arabi,  and  I  was  pleased  when  Fathy  Bey,  who  joined  our  con- 
versation, expressed  himself  warmly  about  Arabi,  and  in  favour  of  his 
being  allowed  to  return  to  Egypt. 

"i2th  Nov. —  Arrived  early  at  Shellall,  and  descended  the  cataract 
in  a  felnka  —  no  very  hazardous  affair.  Lunched  at  Assouan  with 
the  English  mess  and  met  there  Beshir  Bey  and  Ahmed  Bey  Khalifa  of 
the  Ababdeh.  Then  on  board  the  steamer  for  Cairo. 

"  itfh  Nov. —  We  stopped  two  hours  at  Edfu,  which  gave  us  time 
to  see  the  temple,  the  most  perfect  in  Egypt.  Indeed,  it  might  be  '  re- 
stored to  public  worship '  without  the  smallest  repair.  Mere  ruins  are 
tiresome,  but  this  is  not  one.  We  have  half-a-dozen  tourists  on  board, 
the  first  of  the  season  —  Dr.  Ruffer  and  his  wife,  a  Spanish  diplo- 
matist from  Constantinople,  an  old  Frenchwoman,  and  an  English 
geologist.  Stopped  at  Esneh,  where  there  is  a  temple  partly  under- 
ground, and  arrived  at  Luxor,  and  for  the  night,  Kus. 

"Nov.  i^th. —  A  quite  cold  morning  with  clouds  to  the  west  and 
a  feeling  of  dampness  in  the  air.  There  has  probably  been  rain  at 
Alexandria,  and  very  likely  a  southwest  gale  in  the  Mediterranean, 
where  Anne  and  Judith  are  to  embark  to-day.  Arrived  at  Girgeh, 
where  our  few  passengers  got  out;  but  I  have  decided  to  go  on  to 
Cairo  by  steamer  with  the  Ruffers.  A  wonderful  sunset,  followed 
by  thunder  and  lightning  and  some  rain  —  this  off  Ahmim,  a  very 
beautiful  part  of  the  river.  The  night  too  dark  to  go  on,  so  after 
running  aground,  we  stopped  for  the  rest  of  it. 

"  i^th  Nov. —  I  have  had  much  talk  with  Dr.  Ruffer,  who  is  a  su- 
perior man  of  science.  He  was  for  two  years  a  pupil  of  Pasteur  at 
Paris,  and  speaks  of  him  with  enthusiasm.  He  tells  me  'that  Pasteur 
had  a  physical  dislike  for  surgical  operations  and,  he  believes,  never 
was  present  at  the  experimental  ones  made  on  live  animals.  But  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  have  them  performed  by  others.  I  asked  him  how 
much  truth  there  was  in  the  accusations  made  against  him  of  having 
kept  dogs  for  months  under  torture,  and  he  said  that  Pasteur  had 
made  a  mistake  in  experimenting  on  dogs  for  hydrophobia,  as  they 
were  much  more  dangerous  to  handle ;  that  it  had  now  been  found  that 
all  the  symptoms  of  hydrophobia  could  be  equally  well  studied  in 
rabbits ;  that,  after  inoculating  dogs  with  the  disease,  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  them  and  watch  whether  or  not  they  went  mad,  and  so  he 
had  kept  some  of  them  for  years,  but  that  they  were  well  treated  —  some 
twenty-five  of  them  at  the  time  he  was  there.  He  said  i't  was  a  choice 
between  making  experiments  of  this  kind  and  not  proceeding  with 
the  inquiry.  But  I  gather  from  him  that  he  is  not  certain  whether 


204  Nubar  Pasha  Resigns  [1895 

the  object  has  been  obtained.  The  difficulty  of  being  certain  was  that 
only  some  fifteen  per  cent,  of  cases  of  bites  from  a  certainly  mad  dog 
led  to  hydrophobia.  He  talked  of  Pasteur  as  the  one  great  man  of 
Science  France  had  produced.  He  described  him  as  a  most  simple- 
minded  man,  entirely  destitute  of  humour,  and  incapable  of  thinking 
about  more  than  one  thing  at  a  time.  If  you  started  him  on  a  conversa- 
tion he  could  not  change  the  subject  till  he  had  exhausted  it.  This 
was  the  secret  of  his  success.  His  mind  was  not  a  French  one. 

"  Dr.  Ruffer  is  at  the  head  of  the  Pasteur  Institute  of  London.  He 
tells  me  he  is  only  thirty-six,  though  he  has  grey  hair  and  looks  fifty. 
But  he  was  junior  to  George  Curzon  when  at  Oxford,  so  I  suppose  he 
is  of  the  age  he  says.  More  thunder  and  lightning  in  the  evening, 
away  to  the  north-west.  There  must  have  been  heavy  rain  in  Jendali 
and  probably  on  all  the  hills  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea.  It  is 
cold  and  damp  and  raw.  I  am  getting  weary  of  the  Nile  and  cannot 
understand  the  patience  of  travellers  not  invalids  who  travel  on  it  in 
dahabiyahs.  We  stopped  at  Beni  Hassan,  but  I  did  not  go  ashore,  as 
I  draw  the  line  at  tombs.  Beni  Hassan,  however,  might,  I  think,  be 
a  good  point  of  departure  for  our  winter's  journey.  Farther  down 
the  river  there  are  impassable  places  where  rocks  come  down  to  the 
water's  edge. 

"  i6th  Nov. —  Arrived  at  Cairo  in  the  afternoon,  and  glad  to  get 
home.  The  Lower  River  seems  to  me  vastly  superior  to  the  Upper, 
and  has  a  familiar  and  pleasant  aspect.  I  had  the  rare  pleasure  of 
seeing  a  real  seyl  come  down  into  the  Nile  some  forty  yards  across, 
and  strong  and  deep  enough  to  carry  away  a  camel  —  a  great  turbid 
flood  which  had  broken  through  the  Nile  bank  and  was  rushing  some 
two  hundred  yards  out  into  the  river.  It  must  have  come  from  Wady 
Senhur,  a  few  miles  south  of  Wasta. 

"  There  has  been  an  earthquake  at  Rome  and  a  change  of  Ministry 
at  Cairo.  Nubar,  the  old  rogue,  has  retired,  and  Mustafa  Fehmy  is  put 
into  his  place. 

"  It  was  dark  before  I  got  to  Sheykh  Obeyd,  and  I  had  some  difficulty 
in  making  myself  heard  at  the  gate,  but  all  is  well.  El  hamdul  illah." 

The  disappearance  of  Nubar  here  recorded  marks  the  beginning  of 
the  new  regime  in  Egypt  which  was  to  last  for  nearly  ten  years,  during 
which  Cromer  was  to  be  supreme  in  every  branch  of  the  Egyptian  ad- 
ministration, governing  through  merely  dummy  native  Ministers,  with 
Mustafa  Fehmy  at  their  head.  Lord  Salisbury,  now  at  the  head  of 
a  strong  Unionist  Government  in  England,  had  made  up  his  mind  at 
all  hazards  to  continue  the  military  Occupation  and  retain  Egypt  per- 
manently as  a  dependency  of  the  British  Empire.  He  also,  though  we 
did  not  know  it  at  the  time,  had  a  settled  design  of  avenging  the  death 


1895]  The  Dongola  Refugees  205 

of  Gordon  and  the  disgrace  of  Wolseley's  defeat  by  the  Mahdi  in  1884 
as  one  of  the  two  matters  necessary  for  England's  honour,  the  other 
being  the  defeat  at  Majuba  in  South  Africa.  We  know  this  from  his 
own  boast  in  1902,  shortly  before  he  retired  from  public  life,  and  we 
have  every  reason  to  be  sure  that  at  the  back  of  his  determination  on 
both  points  stood  his  mistress,  Queen  Victoria.  The  present  chapter 
will  show  the  first  steps  taken  in  accordance  with  this  policy  on  the  Nile, 
in  its  commencement  not  altogether  with  Lord  Cromer's  approval,  his 
objection  to  it  being  a  financial  one,  as  certain  to  overburden  the 
Eyptian  Budge't,  and  as  such  premature,  but,  as  will  be  seen,  his  opposi- 
tion on  this  head  was  overruled  from  Downing  Street  and  financial 
caution,  in  large  measure  overcome  by  the  parsimonious  ability  of 
Lord  Kitchener,  to  whom  the  advance  up  the  Nile  was  entrusted,  and 
who  ran  it  on  the  cheap. 

"  Having  made  this  brief  explanation  I  resume  my  diary. 

"  17 th  Nov. —  There  have  been  tremendous  seyls  all  round  Sheykh 
Obeyd.  Part  of  our  garden  wall  is  broken  down  by  it  and  the  house 
at  El  Kheysheh  flooded,  though  no  great  damage  done.  Suliman 
Howeyti  had  his  tent  carried  away  just  outside.  At  Kafr  el 
Jamus  eleven  houses  are  ruined,  and  at  Koubba  a  great  seyl  from  the 
hills  broke  through  the  old  railway  embankment  and  destroyed  fifty 
houses  and  a  French  public  garden,  threatening  even  the  Palace  with 
flood.  The  like  has  never  been  seen  before.  Old  Deifallah  is  dying 
of  old  age,  like  Job,  on  a  dung-hill  outside  Dormer's  garden  wall. 

"  Things  have  gone  rapidly  in  Turkey  during  the  last  three  weeks. 
Disturbances  everywhere  in  the  provinces,  the  devil  generally  let  loose. 

"2oth  Nov. —  Anne,  Judith,  and  Cowie  arrived  at  Sheykh  Obeyd. 
I  dined  with  Dormer  last  night. 

"  2&th  Nov. —  I  wrote  yesterday  to  Lord  Cromer  about  the  permis- 
sion asked  by  the  Dongola  people  to  return  to  their  homes.  I  said  that 
the  Story  they  gave  me  was  that  they  had  emigrated  into  Egypt  after 
the  Mahdi's  death  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  the  Baggara  chiefs  who 
represented  the  Khalifa's  government  at  Dongola;  that  they  assured 
me  that  they  would  be  subject  to  no  vexation  now ;  that  living  there  was 
cheap  and  land  plentiful ;  that  I  had  mentioned  their  case  to  the  Com- 
mandant at  Wady  Haifa,  who  had  told  me  that  the  chief  reason  for 
the  prohibition  was  a  fear  that  the  return  of  the  refugees  would  hamper 
and  endanger  the  spies  sent  by  the  Intelligence  Department,  but  that 
this  seemed  hardly  a  sufficient  reason  for  retaining  in  Egypt  so  many 
persons  who  were  a  burden  and  a  trouble.  I  suggested  that  perhaps 
the  time  was  come  when  the  question  might  be  reconsidered ;  there 
seemed  to  be  no  immediate  prospect  of  a  military  advance  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case  had  changed  since  the  frontier  regulations  were 
enacted. 


2o6  Nejd  Politics  [1895 

"  Today  I  went  to  Cairo  and  saw  Lord  Cromer,  who  told  me  he 
had  forwarded  my  letter  to  Kitchener  and  would  let  me  know  when 
his  answer  was  received.  He  then  talked  of  other  matters  and  of  the 
possibility  of  Mohammed  Abdu  being  named  head  of  the  Awkaf. 
This  I,  of  course,  strongly  commended.  I  also  saw  Gorst. 

"  $Qth  Nov. —  Started  with  Anne  for  the  eastern  desert.  On  our 
return. 

"  yd  Dec. —  Found  a  letter  from  George  Wyndham  with  an  ac- 
count of  little  Percy's  accident,  touchingly  told. 

"  jth  Dec. —  A  visit  from  Ibrahim  ibn  Abdallah  Thenneyan  ibn 
Saoud  el  Nejdi  who  has  just  escaped  from  Constantinople.  He  gave 
much  interesting  information.  The  Sultan  is  now  entirely  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Sheykh  Abul  Huda;  and  Jemal  ed  Din  is  never  received  at 
the  palace.  Things  are  going  as  badly  there  as  possible.  He  has  come 
to  Cairo,  hoping  through  the  Khedive's  influence  to  get  back  to  Nejd. 
His  father's  grandfather,  Thenneyan,  was  for  a  couple  of  years  Emir 
of  Nejd,  while  Feysul  was  in  captivity  at  Dar  el  Beyda.  But  when 
Feysul  escaped  and  returned  to  Nejd,  he  and  his  family  were  driven  to 
Bagdad.  Speaking  of  the  Ananzeh  he  assured  me  their  migration 
North  dated  from  200  or  300  years  ago.  The  Ibn  Saouds  are  of  Ana- 
zeh  stock. 

"  i2th  Dec. —  I  have  written  another  long  letter  to  Cromer  about  the 
return  of  'the  refugees  to  Dongola.  Kitchener,  in  reply  to  my  first 
letter,  declared  the  road  to  be  open  to  them  via  Assouan  and  Berber. 
That  would  give  them  a  journey  of  1,000  miles  to  accomplish  the  100 
miles  which  separate  them  at  Sarras  from  their  homes.  He  pretends, 
too,  that  the  Dervishes  are  threatening  the  frontier.  Our  people  are 
humbugs  about  this  almost  more  than  about  anything  else.  The  officers 
when  I  was  there  were  all  complaining  that  there  was  nothing  for  them 
to  do  on  the  frontier  if  the  Dervishes  would  make  no  move. 

"  We  went  to-day  to  look  at  some  desert  land  280  f  eddans  out- 
side Kafr  el  Shorafa,  for  sale  by  the  Government  at  50  piastres  the 
feddan,  for  first  price.  I  would  give  £2.  Ibrahim  ibn  Saoud  came 
to-day  to  luncheon.  He  had  been  to  the  palace.  He  asked  me  for  a 
letter  to  Lord  Cromer,  explaining  that  his  business  was  to  invite 
English  protection  for  Nejd.  He  declared  'that  six  months  ago  Fawzi 
Pasha,  Turkish  Waly  of  El  Hasa,  received  orders  from  the  Ottoman 
Government  to  send  an  expedition  to  take  over  the  Government  of 
Riad  and  El  Haryk.  Fawzi  was  a  Syrian,  knew  Arabic,  and  would 
have  been  able  to  effect  his  purpose  through  the  Arab  tribes.  Cor- 
respondence had  passed  between  the  Sultan  and  Ibn  Rashid,  who  had 
consented  to  the  aggression.  Now,  however,  Ibrahim  would  wish,  the 
British  Government  to  undertake  a  protectorate  as  at  Bahreyn  and  Mus- 
cat—  at  least  to  forbid  'the  Turkish  advance  inland.  I  gave  him  the 


1895]  Italian  Defeat  in  Abyssinia  207 

letter,  but  warned  him  not  to  trust  too  much  to  English  magnanimity. 
If  we  once  got  our  foot  into  Nejd,  it  would  be  difficult  to  get  us  out 
again.  Perhaps  the  Turks  might  be  worse,  but  we  were  dangerous  too. 
For  that  matter  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  too  near  its  dissolu'tion  to 
think  just  now  of  any  forward  movement.  Neither  was  it  in  the  least 
probable  that  England  would  undertake  a  pro'cectorate  or  do  anything: 
His  seeing  Cromer  cannot  do  much  harm.  So  I  gave  him  the  letter. 

"  There  is  news  of  a  great  defeat  of  the  Italians  by  the  Abyssinians. 
I  am  much  pleased  at  this,  as  their  aggression  has  been  one  of  the 
most  abominable  of  our  abominable  age.  Perhaps  now  the  Dervishes 
may  drive  them  out  of  Kassala."  This  was  the  least  excusable  of  the 
many  lawless  raids  made  by  the  Italians  in  Africa,  prompted  in  part 
by  the  vanity  of  the  parvenu  kingdom  of  Italy  to  show  itself  as  aggres- 
sive as  its  older  neighbours,  France  and  England,  partly  by  mining 
speculation.  Unlike  most  of  these  raids  undertaken  by  the  Christian 
nations  in  our  time,  it  had  not  even  the  excuse  of  calling  itself  a  cru- 
sade, seeing  that  the  Abyssinians  were  themselves  Christians,  of  a 
wild,  old-fashioned  kind,  but  still  just  as  much  Christians  as  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Calabria,  while,  compared  with  the  Abyssinian  Emperor  who 
is  lineally  descended  from  the  Queen  of  Sheba  by  King  Solomon,  the 
House  of  Savoy  enthroned  at  the  Quirinal  is  bift  a  stem  of  yesterday, 
yet  not  a  shadow  of  reproof  was  uttered  by  our  statesmen  in  Downing 
Street,  and  the  general  remark  about  the  Italian  expedition  in  the 
London  Press  was  that  the  ending  of  the  Abyssinian  monarchy  would 
not  be  '  felt  upon  the  Stock  Exchange.' 

"  i6th  Dec. —  Went  in  to  Cairo  to  see  the  Khedive.  He  was  very 
cordial  as  usual,  and  made  me  a  number  of  confidences,  some  very  in- 
teresting. He  told  me  the  full  story  of  his  visit  to  Constantinople 
this  summer.  His  object,  he  says,  was  not  a  political  one,  but  to  get 
permission  from  the  Sultan  to  build  a  house  on  the  island  of  Thasos 
where,  and  at  Kavala,  he  has  the  direction  of  the  Awkaf.  He  wanted 
a  place  to  spend  the  summer  in  with  his  wife  and  child,  instead  of 
going  to  Europe.  He  went  to  Stamboul  in  his  yacht,  and  found  it  so 
pleasant  there  that  he  stayed  two  months.  The  Sultan  was  polite  to 
him,  and  asked  him  constantly  to  dinner,  and  to  hear  music,  but  would 
not  talk  business.  At  last  he  got  tired  of  waiting,  and  sent  word  that 
he  wanted  permission  to  go  to  Thasos,  and  also  to  lay  certain  papers 
before  the  Sultan  connected  with  the  Halim  succession  and  the  claim 
of  the  Azhar  University  to  a  part  of  it.  But  he  got  a  number  of 
evasive  answers.  At  one  time  he  was  told  '  yes  ' —  at  another  that 
the  Sultan  had  a  cold  and  could  not  see  him  —  at  another  that  he  had 
bad  eyes  and  could  not  read  the  papers  —  and  other  foolish  excuses. 
In  the  meantime  he  had  been  dogged  by  spies,  and  on  one  occasion 
when  he  had  made  an  arrangement  privately  to  see  Sheykh  Jemal  ed 


208  Abbas  and  the  Sultan  [1895 

Din  he  had  been  followed  so  closely  that  he  had  turned  on  the  spy  and 
beaten  him,  and  had  sent  a  message  to  the  palace  that  if  he  was  thus 
annoyed  again  he  would  shoot  his  persecutors. 

"  At  last  a  day  of  audience  was  fixed  with  the  Sultan  for  him  to 
say  '  good-bye.'  But  after  being  kept  waiting  for  an  hour,  Osman 
Pasha  came  to  him  and  began  to  talk  about  the  Thasos  plan,  and  to 
try  and  dissuade  him.  At  this  he  lost  patience,  and  asked  Osman 
straight  whether  he  had  been  sent  with  the  message  from  the  Sultan, 
and,  on  his  admitting  it,  he  spoke  his  whole  mind.  '  I  told  him,' 
said  the  Khedive,  '  that  I  was  tired  of  the  Sultan's  way  of  treating  me, 
that  I  had  been  not  yet  four  years  on  the  throne,  and  I  had  come  three 
times  to  Constantinople  to  see  him,  which  was  more  than  any  of  my 
predecessors  had  done,  and  yet  he  had  not  spoken  to  me  a  reasonable 
word.  My  great-great-grandfather,  I  told  him,  Mohammed  AH,  had 
never  gone  to  Constantinople,  though  he  was  near  it  once,  by  way  of 
Nezim  and  Koniah.  My  great-grandfather  Ibrahim  had  never  been, 
though  he  had  a  stronger  army  than  the  Sultan's.  My  father  was 
eleven  years  on  the  throne,  and  he  never  went.  I  alone  went,  to  do 
the  Sultan  pleasure.  I  even,  to  please  him,  gave  up  last  year  my  visit 
to  England.  Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  who  is  Empress  of  India  and 
300  millions  of  subjects,  and  on  whose  dominions  the  sun  never  sets, 
had  done  me  the  honor  of  inviting  me,  and  I  had  accepted  the  invita- 
tion ;  yet,  on  account  of  a  miserable  bit  of  paper,  a  telegram  from  Con- 
stantinople, I  broke  my  engagement  and  went  to  the  Sultan  instead.  I 
am  tired  of  this.  You  may  tell  the  Sultan  that  this  year  I  will  not  go 
to  Thasos,  but  for  the  future  I  shall  know  how  to  regulate  my  conduct 
towards  him.  While  talking  thus  —  and  I  never  talked  so  strongly 
in  my  life  —  Nuri  Bey  joined  us,  and  he  and  Osman  were  horror- 
struck  at  my  words,  and  shook  with  fear,  and  wen'fc  at  once  to  the  Sul- 
tan, who  sent  for  me  and  apologized  and  loaded  me  with  civilities. 
But  I  told  him  that  it  was  no  case  for  apologies,  tha't  I  understood  now 
what  his  diplomacy  was,  and  that  I  should  return  to  my  own  country, 
and  forget  as  far  as  possible  that  I  stood  to  him  in  the  relation  of  a  sub- 
ject. And  so  it  has  been.  From  that  day  to  this  I  have  cut  the  Sul- 
tan's name  out  of  my  prayer ;  I  have  never  been  to  the  mosque  where 
the  prayer  for  the  Sultan  is  made,  and,  when  I  pray  in  my  own  mosque 
at  Koubba,  my  chaplain  omits  the  Sultan's  name.  We  pray  for  "  the 
welfare  of  Islam  and  all  believers,  but  not  for  those  (he  quoted  the 
words  in  Arabic)  who  are  bringing  Islam  to  its  ruin." ' 

"  I  am  not  sure  that  I  have  quoted  the  Khedive  quite  verbally,  but 
this  is  the  sense  of  his  words.  He  spoke  with  animation,  and  told  the 
story  admirably.  He  told  me  also  that  he  had  seen  Abdallah  Nadim  1 
at  Constantinople,  and  that  he  was  allowing  him  to  return  to  Egypt 

1  See  "  Secret  History." 


1895]  Wingate  and  Statin  209 

Of  the  prospects  of  Constantinople  he  said  he  feared  the  Sultan's  sub- 
jects would  never  succeed  in  getting  rid  of  him,  though  the  European 
Powers  might  depose  him.  He  asked  me  about  affairs  in  Arabia,  and 
told  me  he  had  seen  Ibrahim  ibn  Thenneyan,  but  Sheykh  Mohammed 
Abdu  had  warned  him  that  he  was  perhaps  a  spy  of  Sheykh  Abul 
Huda's.  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  think  this  to  be  the  case,  though  it 
might  be  well  to  be  cautious.  Then  he  talked  about  the  desert,  and 
an  expedition  he  intended  to  make  to  El  Arish  in  the  Spring,  and  how 
he  was  having  the  post  road  repaired  to  Dar  el  Beyda.  He  certainly 
is  a  charming  young  man,  and  brim  full  of  intelligence. 

"  I  lunched  with  Gorst  and  talked  to  him  about  the  affairs  of  the 
Soudan.  He  told  me,  as  an  instance  of  the  humbug  that  went  on  at 
the  frontier,  of  the  way  in  which  Wingate  had  got  the  credit  of  Slatin's 
escape  from  Khartoum.  This  has  been  represented  as  entirely  Win- 
gate's  cleverness,  whereas  in  point  of  fact  Wingate  was  away  at  the 
time  at  Souakim,  and  the  plan  was  Slatin's  own.  Maxwell  (?),  who 
was  in  charge  of  Wady  Haifa,  received  a  letter  from  Slatin,  addressed 
to  whoever  was  in  command,  asking  him  to  pay  the  bearer  £100,  and 
to  promise  another  £100  in  case  of  success.  This  Maxwell  had  done, 
but  nothing  more  was  thought  about  it  tilt  Slatin  arrived  and  embraced 
Wingate,  who  had  meanwhile  returned,  calling  him  his  deliverer.  Win- 
gate  then  looked  up  the  papers  for  the  first  time,  and  promptly  endorsed 
them,  '  I  approve.'  There  has  been  a  raid  quite  recently,  thirty  miles 
north  of  Wady  Haifa,  and  sixteen  persons  have  been  killed  in  a  village. 

"  Left  a  card  on  the  French  Minister,  M.  Cogordan,  who  sent  me 
a  message  last  summer  through  Mile.  Lagrene  that  he  would  like 
to  see  me. 

"  igth  Dec. —  Eldon  Gorst  came,  with  his  sister,  to  spend  the  day. 
We  took  them  to  the  sand  hills  and  set  up  a  shelter  and  lunched  there. 
I  had  a  good  deal  of  talk  with  Gorst.  He  is  a  worthy  young  man,  very 
painstaking  and  desirous  to  do  rightly,  but  hardly  a  man  of  genius. 
One  does  not  understand  why  he  should  have  been  chosen,  out  of  the 
many  thousand  young  men  whose  services  are  to  be  had,  to  be  Prime 
Minister  of  Egypt.  I  imagine  that  he  would  command  at  home  per- 
haps £400  or  £500  a  year.  But  this  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  Anglo- 
Egyptian  rule.  He  has  a  moderate  knowledge  of  Arabic,  having  served 
an  apprenticeship  under  Cromer.  The  fact  is,  there  is  no  country  so 
easy  to  govern  as  Egypt  is,  given  fair  intelligence  and  perfect  honesty 
in  the  governor. 

"  2ist  Dec. — M.  Cogordan,  with  his  secretary,  lunched  with  us. 
Cogordan  is  a  man  of  about  forty,  of  good  presence  and  manners 
and  very  amiable.  We  sat  on  the  roof  after  luncheon  and  I  took  the 
opportunity  of  explaining  to  him  something  of  the  history  of  Arabi's 
revolution,  as  to  which  the  French  have  the  absurdest  ideas.  The 


2io  AH  Sherifs  Horses 

origin  of  my  calling  on  him  and  of  his  visit  was  a  message  I  received 
in  the  summer  from  Mile,  de  Lagrene,  saying  he  wished  to  make  my 
acquaintance.  Of  current  politics  we  talked  little,  except  as  to  the 
Khedive's  character,  which  he  praised  highly. 

"  24th  Dec. —  Kitchener  gives  a  final  answer  about  the  refugees,  re- 
fusing on  the  ground  that  he  does  not  wish  the  district  re-peopled,  for 
fear  it  should  serve  as  a  basis  for  Dervish  raids.  Rubbish! 

"  There  is  a  fine  quarrel  on  between  England  and  the  United  States 
about  Venezuela.  Lord  Salisbury  is  getting  into  nice  hot  water.  He 
has  a  war  with  Ashanti  of  the  most  causeless  kind.  His  diplomacy 
at  Constantinople  has  entirely  broken  down,  as  the  Turks  are  mas- 
sacring the  Armenians  worse  than  ever  —  and  now  he  will  have  to 
fight  or  sing  small  —  doubtless  sing  small  —  in  America.  I  should 
not  be  surprised  'to  see  the  Egyptian  question  raised  at  any  moment  as 
a  European  one. 

"  2C)th  Dec. —  Went  in  to  Cairo  yesterday  to  see  Ali  Pasha  Sherif 's 
horses.  They  showed  us  half-a-dozen  which  \vere  for  sale.  We  shall 
bid  for  two,  a  chestnut  colt,  two  years  old,  very  like  Mesaoud,  and  a 
grey  filly,  a  Jellabieh,  also  a  two-year-old,.  We  did  not  see  the  best 
mares,  but  we  saw  the  stallions.  They  have  nothing  left  now  but  Aziz, 
aged  nineteen,  Ibn  Nadir,  aged  twenty-four,  and  Ibn  Sherara,  also  an 
old  horse.  They  are  terribly  in  want  of  new  blood. 

"  Ali  Pasha  Sherif  has  had  a  decree  of  interdiction  passed  on  him 
as  incapable  of  the  management  of  his  affairs,  and  Shakir  Pasha  is 
appointed  Wakil.  He  has  quarrelled  with  his  seven  sons  and  receives 
an  allowance  of  £500  a  year.  Such  is  the  position  of  the  man  who  a 
year  ago  was  President  of  'the  Legislative  Council,  by  favour  of  the 
late  Khedive  Tewfik  and  Lord  Cromer. 

"  Afterwards  to  call  on  Riaz,  whom  I  found  with  Tigrane,  showing 
him  his  estate  accounts  at  Melhallet  el  Roh.  These  bring  him  in  £10 
an  acre,  gross  —  expenses  of  cultivation  £4.  and  tax  £i.  Net  income  £5 
an  acre.  He  reviewed  the  state  of  agricultural  things  since  he  had 
first  been  in  the  Government  service  in  1850.  He  said  that  the  wars 
of  Mohammed  Ali  had  ruined  the  country,  much  of  which  had  gone 
out  of  cultivation,  but  that  under  Abbas  and  Said  the  population  had 
nearly  doubled.  The  taxation  was  then  one  third  what  it  is  now. 
Everyone  was  well  off.  Then  Ismail  ruined  it  again.  The  price  of 
land  went  up  after  his  deposition  and  stood  in  1880  at  its  highest.  It 
was  going  down  now  with  the  fall  in  prices  of  produce.  On  the  other 
hand  the  public  expenditure  had  increased  since  the  English  occupa- 
tion by  two  millions  a  year,  and  ten  millions  capital  had  been  added 
to  the  debt." 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   JAMESON    RAID 

M  5th  Jan. —  There  is  excellent  news.  Those  blackguards  of  the 
Chartered  Company  in  South  Africa,  under  Doctor  Jameson,  have  made 
a  filibustering  raid  on  the  Transvaal  and  have  been  annihilated  by  the 
Boers,  Jameson  a  prisoner.  I  devoutly  hope  he  may  be  hanged.  I 
have  seen  this  business  coming  on  for  some  weeks  past  in  articles  from 
the  '  Times.'  That  other  high-placed  filibuster,  Chamberlain,  is,  I 
am  sure,  responsible,  or  the  *  Times '  would  never  have  taken  up  the 
matter  in  the  way  it  has.  They  seem  to  have  been  encouraged  in  the 
sort  of  way  these  things  are  encouraged  unofficially,  by  Chamberlain, 
who  would  have  scored  a  victory  for  himself  if  they  had  succeeded.  As 
it  is  he  will  disavow  them.  I  am  much  mistaken  if  Chamberlain,  with 
his  three  Colonial  wars  on  hand  in  Ashanti,  Venezuela,  and  now  in 
the  Transvaal,  involving  quarrels  with  France,  America,  and  Ger- 
many, will  not  upset  Lord  Salisbury's  government,  if  he  does  not  upset 
the  British  Empire. 

"  Lord  and  Lady  Cromer  came  here  to  tea.  I  had  a  good  deal  of 
talk  with  him.  He  says  the  Jameson  episode  will  do  a  '  deal  of  harm  ' 
here,  as  people  will  consider  it  a  British  defeat  (which  it  is).  He 
added :  '  These  filibustering  enterprises  are  only  justifiable  by  suc- 
cess. I  don't  say  that  they  are  justifiable  at  all,  but  if  they  don't  suc- 
ceed the  actors  in  them  should  pay  the  penalty.'  I  think  he  is  rather 
uneasy  in  his  mind.  We  talked  also  about  Egyptian  affairs.  He  'told 
me  the  Khedive  was  spending  money  very  foolishly  and  would  soon, 
at  the  present  rate,  be  bankrupt,  also  that  complaints  had  been  made 
to  him  by  fellahin  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Koubbah,  whose  land  he  had 
been  attempting  to  take,  reviving  obsolete  claims  against  squatters  on 
abandoned  land,  but  he  was  not  sure  the  complaints  were  true,  the 
complainants  refusing  to  come  forward  openly.  They  stated  that  they 
had  been  bullied  by  the  palace  people  and  beaten  with  knrbajs.  lie 
asked  me  if  I  had  received  complaints  on  the  subject,  but  it  is  new  to 
me.  He  told  me  that  Ibrahim  P.cy  Ibn  Saoiul  had  been  to  him  twice,  the 
first  time  to  evoke  his  protection  against  the  Sultan,  to  which  he  had 
replied  that,  as  long  as  he,  Ibrahim  Bey,  remained  unamenable  to  Egyp- 
tian law  he  had  nothing  to  fear.  The  second  time  he  had  brought  him 
a  '  ridiculous  paper,'  the  copy  of  one  he  had  submitted  to  the  Khedive, 

211 


212  Alfred  Austin  Laureate  [1896 

charging  the  Sultan  with  all  sorts  of  crimes,  and  appealing  to  the 
Khedive  to  occupy  Nejd.  He  had  had  to  give  him  '  a  piece  of  his 
mind '  and  tell  him  that  if  he  meddled  with  politics  and  the  Sultan 
heard  of  it  and  demanded  his  extradition,  he  should  not  interfere  to 
protect  him;  if  he  wanted  to  talk  Arabian  politics  he  had  better  go 
to  Bagdad. 

"  We  also  discussed  the  appointment  of  Alfred  Austin  to  the  post 
of  Poet  Laureate.  He,  Cromer,  thought  William  Watson  would  have 
been  better.  The  Empress  Frederick  had  'tried  to  get  Rennell  Rodd 
appointed.  He  had  never  heard  of  Austin.  Indeed,  Austin's  appoint- 
ment is  a  ridiculous  one,  for,  with  the  exception  of  three  sonnets, 
Austin  has  never  written  anything  in  the  smallest  degree  good.  His 
sole  claim  is  that  he  has  been  a  solid  supporter  of  the  Conservative 
party  in  the  press.  I  remember  him  well  as  a  young  man  about  thirty- 
eight  years  ago,  when  he  first  came  up  to  London  and  published  his  ear- 
liest verses,  '  The  Season,  a  Satire/  and  the  rest.  Some  of  them  rather 
smart.  He  was  a  Catholic  and  moved  in  a  small  way  in  Catholic  soci- 
ety, but  later  married  an  Irish  Protestant  and,  I  believe,  joined  the 
English  church.  He  was  the  most  absurd  little  cock  sparrow  of  a 
man  ever  seen,  and  childishly  vain  of  his  talents.  He  has  improved 
with  years,  but  not  in  his  verses.  His  principal  poem,  '  Madonna's 
Child,'  is  about  the  dullest  and  silliest  tale  in  meagre  blank  verse  ever 
produced.  He  has  floated  in  at  last  to  the  Laurea'teship  on  the  suc- 
cess of  a  prose  volume  about  his  garden  in  Kent.  There  really  was  no 
choice,  however,  for  the  post.  William  Morris  refused,  the  Queen  ob- 
jected to  Swinburne,  old  Patmore  was  a  Catholic,  the  rest  were,  if  pos- 
sible, worse  than  Austin.  He  is  better  anyhow  'than  Lewis  Morris,  the 
Liberal  candidate,  or  than  Watson,  Dobson,  Davidson,  and  the  rest  of 
the  sons  of  their  own  penny  trumpets. 

"  qth  Jan. — The  German  Emperor  has  telegraphed  his  congratula- 
tions to  Kruger,  and  this  seems  to  have  produced  great  anger  in  Eng- 
land. We  have  now  managed  in  the  last  six  months  to  quarrel  violently 
with  China,  Turkey,  Belgium,  Ashanti,  France,  Venezuela,  America, 
and  Germany.  This  is  a  record  performance,  and  if  it  does  not  break 
up  the  British  Empire  nothing  will.  For  myself  I  am  glad  of  it  all, 
for  the  British  Empire  is  the  great  engine  of  evil  for  the  weak  races 
now  existing  in  the  world  —  not  that  we  are  worse  than  the  French 
or  Italians  or  Americans  —  indeed,  we  are  less  actively  destructive  — 
but  we  do  it  over  a  far  wider  area  and  more  successfully.  I  should 
be  delighted  to  see  England  stripped  of  her  whole  foreign  possessions. 
We  were  befter  off  and  more  respected  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  the 
'  spacious  days,'  when  we  had  not  a  stick  of  territory  outside  the  British 
Islands,  than  now,  and  infinitely  more  respectable.  The  gangrene  of 
colonial  rowdyism  is  infecting  us,  and  the  habit  of  repressing  liberty 


1896]  Cramer's  Wrong-Headed  Policy  213 

in  weak  nations  is  endangering  our  own.  I  should  be  glad  to  see  the 
end. 

"  My  old  woodreeve,  Bates,  at  Crabbe't  has  hanged  himself  in  his 
cart  shed  —  a  man  of  genius  in  his  way  of  life,  who,  beginning  as  a 
day  labourer,  rose  to  be  the  best  judge  of  timber  in  Sussex,  as  well 
as  a  successful  farmer  and  churchwarden  of  the  parish.  Having 
completed  eighty-four  years  of  life  and  fifty  of  honest  service  in  the 
Crabbet  Estate,  and  having  entertained  his  friends  the  night  before, 
he  wen't  out  in  the  early  morning  to  his  shed  and  was  found  there  dead 
hanging  from  a  beam.  I  can  imagine  the  old  man  carefully  tying  the 
noose,  as  his  manner  was,  without  mistake.  It  was  noticed  by  those 
who  had  been  with  him  at  dinner  the  night  before  that  during  the 
meal  he  had  a  hank  of  rope  on  his  knees  with  which  he  was  playing. 
In  the  morning  he  had  got  up  by  candlelight,  asked  his  old  wife  '  How 
are  you,  old  girl  ? '  and  had  gone  out  to  the  cart  shed,  where  he  was 
found  hanging. 

"  nth  Jan. — Took  Anne  and  Judith  to  Koubbah  to  see  the  Khedive. 
He  received  us  with  great  empressement,  talked  a  good  deal  about  the 
petty  vexations  and  the  affronts  put  upon  him  by  the  English  officials, 
and  showed  us  his  stud.  He  has  got  'together  some  nice  mares,  but 
nothing  quite  first  class,  except  two  of  AH  Pasha  Sherif's,  one  of  which 
is  our  horse  Mesaoud's  dam,  a  very  splendid  mare,  with  the  finest 
head  in  the  world.  He  has  bred  some  promising  colts  and  altogether 
the  thing  is  well  done.  He  invited  us  to  go  out  with  him  some  day  on 
a  desert  expedition,  and  sent  us  to  the  station  in  his  barouche. 

"  There  seems  a  good  chance  now  of  the  Egyptian  question  being 
re-opened  as  a  European  one,  for  the  feeling  against  us  in  Germany 
is  very  strong  over  the  Transvaal  affair,  and  Egypt  is  the  point  where 
they  can  best  put  on  the  screw.  I  am  sorry  it  should  come  in  this  way, 
though  i't  is  what  I  have  always  foreseen,  for  Egypt  internationalized 
to  the  profit  of  Europe  is  not  a  pleasant  prospect.  It  comes  of 
Cromer's  wrong-headed  adminstra'tion,  where  the  one  object  has  been 
to  Anglicize,  not  to  establish  a  National  Government.  Egypt,  too,  has 
been  scandalously  used  for  the  creation  of  highly  paid  posts  for  not- 
very  capable  Englishmen.  I  foresaw  all  this  and  protested  years  ago. 
but  it  was  of  no  use.  Now  we  shall  evacuate  the  country  not  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Egyptians,  but  for  that  of  the  scoundrel  European  Colo- 
nies. 

"Yesterday  Dawkins  and  his  wife  were  here  —  he  a  new  man  sent 
in  Milner's  place,  and  a  friend  of  Milner's.  I  talked  to  him  a  good 
deal  about  Cromer's  policy,  in  which  I  think  he  partially  agreed  with 
me,  as  they  all  do  when  it  is  plainly  put  before  them  that  \ve  cannot 
stay  on  for  ever  in  Egypt.  But,  when  things  are  quiet,  and  they  see  a 
chance  of  holding  on,  then  they  harden  their  hearts. 


214  Swagger  and  Poltroonery  [1896 

"  i$th  Jan. —  I  see  in  the  papers  that  negotiations  are  likely  to  come 
on  between  our  Government  and  the  French  about  Egypt.  I  have 
therefore  put  my  ideas  about  a  possible  agreement  for  evacua'tion  on 
paper,  and  shall  probably  send  it  to  Lord  Salisbury  through  Pom  Mc- 
Donnell. It  ought  to  be  a  quite  easy  thing  to  arrange  if  only  Lord 
Salisbury  was  willing.  His  great  necessities  just  now  should  be  our 
occasion. 

"  i6th  Jan. —  Mohammed  Abdu  and  M.  Arminjan  to  luncheon.  I 
talked  the  matter  of  evacuation  over  thoroughly  with  Abdu.  He  tells 
me  that,  much  as  he  is  attached  to  the  Khedive,  it  would  not  do  to  trust 
him  with  power  —  the  Ministry  should  be  independent  of  him  as  far 
as  possible,  and  supported  by  some  sort  of  Constitution.  He  thinks 
this  essential.  There  are  good  men  to  be  found  who  would  hold  their 
own  as  ministers  against  Khedivial  encroachment,  but  not  the  men  now 
in  office,  who  are  mere  dummies.  The  ministers  ought  to  be  irremova- 
ble as  long  as  they  have  the  support  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  If 
we  could  get  the  French  to  agree  to  this,  evacuation  would  be  quite 
simple.  It  really  looks  as  if  it  might  come.  Lord  Salisbury  has  quar- 
relled with  everybody,  and  it  is  about  time  he  should  patch  up  matters 
with  some  of  them  —  and  France  is  the  most  dangerous.  I  should 
prefer,  myself,  to  see  the  British  Empire  break  up.  It  has  become  a 
curse  to  the  world,  but,  for  Egypt's  sake,  an  arrangement  with  France 
would  be  better  at  the  present  moment. 

"  2yd  Jan. —  The  English  papers  are  sickening  about  the  Transvaal, 
a  mixture  of  swagger  and  poltroonery.  One  would  have  thought  the 
less  said  about  Jameson's  ignominious  defeat  by  the  Boers  the  better, 
but  our  blessed  public  must  needs  make  a  hero  of  him,  a  man  who 
fought  for  thirty-six  hours,  and  had  only  fifteen  men  killed  and  then 
surrendered,  not  a  pretence  of  its  being  in  any  better  cause  than  money- 
making  and  land-grabbing.  The  '  Times '  prints  a  poem  in  praise  of 
him  by  the  new  Poet  Laureate.  Austin  has  managed  to  turn  off  some 
spirited  doggerel,  and  to  get  it  recited  at  a  music  hall,  so  low  are  we 
sunk.  I  have  been  busy  writing  my  letter  to  McDonnell,  and  also  finish- 
ing my  article  about  the  evacuation  of  Egypt  for  the  '  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury.' 

"  We  have  had  several  visitors  here.  Madame  d'Hautpoul  and  her 
cousin,  Miss  Pereira,  Lady  Decies  and  a  pretty  daughter,  and  Mr. 
Douglas  Murray.  The  latter  told  me  one  or  two  new  things  about 
Egyptian  history.  Lesseps  had  told  him  that  it  was  he  who  dissuaded 
the  French  Government  from  joining  in  the  bombardment  of  Alex- 
andria or  occupying  the  Suez  Canal,  thinking  that  the  English  would 
get  into  military  difficulties ;  also  that  when  our  fleet  entered  the  Canal, 
Admiral  Hoskins  threatened  Victor  Lesseps  to  hang  him  from  the  yard- 


1896]  Rosebery's  Armenian  Policy  215 

arm  if  he  interfered  with  the  operations.  Lesseps  was  a  vain  old 
fool. 

"  2$th  Jan. —  Lady  Gallo.way  has  arrived  at  Cairo.  I  went  in  to  see 
her  at  the  Legation,  where  she  is  staying  with  the  Cromers.  She  told 
me  that  it  was  out  of  the  question  to  think  of  our  evacuating  Egypt, 
that  if  we  went  out  the  French  would  come  in,  or  there  would  be  mas-« 
sacres  and  a  lot  more  rubbish,  which  I  fear  represents  Lord  Salisbury's 
view.  She  also  blamed  Rosebery  for  the  Armenian  policy,  but  excused 
Lord  Salisbury  for  continuing  it  on  the  ground  that  he  had  a  real  sym- 
pathy for  Armenia,  and  real  hatred  for  the  Turks.  The  Russo-Turkish 
alliance  is  announced  by  the  '  Pall  Mall,'  it  cannot  but  be  true.  I  fancy 
the  Russian  Government  is  glad  to  ally  itself  with  a  fellow  suppressor 
of  Nihilism,  whether  Russian  or  Armenian.  The  Armenians  seem 
likely  now  'to  be  exterminated  between  them,  our  Government  playing 
the  most  foolish  figure  imaginable.  Lady  Galloway  is  coming  to 
Sheykh  Obeyd  on  Monday. 

"  2?th  Jan. —  Lady  Galloway  was  here  for  luncheon  to-day.  I  have 
written  my  memorandum  on  the  evacuation  of  Egypt,  and  am  sending 
it  to  Lord  Salisbury  through  Pom  McDonnell.  In  my  letter  to  Pom  I 
say :  '  I  have  drawn  it  up  very  carefully,  and  after  consultation  wiVh 
some  of  my  Egyptian  friends,  who  best  know  the  situation,  and  in  whom 
I  have  most  confidence  as  honest  and  patriotic  men.  I  have  also  some 
reason  to  believe  that  Monsieur  Cogordan,  the  present  French  Min- 
ister, would  enter  in'to  some  such  plan  were  it  suggested  to  him.  He 
is  a  far  fairer  and  more  intelligent  man  than  any  of  his  predecessors 
here.  I  have  said  nothing  of  it,  however,  directly  to  him,  as  I  only 
know  him  very  slightly.  You  know  how  anxious  I  am  that  Egypt 
should  be  allowed  to  work  out  her  political  destiny  in  peace,  and  I  fore- 
see that  if  Lord  Salisbury  does  nothing 'towards  a  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion now,  it  will  be  forced  upon  him  later  in  a  way  which  will  lead  to 
the  sacrifice  of  all  Egyptian  hopes.  With  the  support  of  Germany 
withdrawn  from  our  occupation,  it  is  impossible  that  Europe  should 
long  delay  making  the  question  its  own.  This  sensible  Egyptians  fear 
as  a  worse  evil  than  anything  in  their  present  condition,  for  it  would 
mean  Egypt  for  all  the  speculators  of  Europe.' 

"  Our  policy  at  Constantinople  has  certainly  gone  an  absolute  smash, 
and  Philip  must  be  feeling  small.  A  treaty  is  announced  be'hveen 
Russia  and  Turkey,  which,  whether  quite  true  or  not,  must  be  very  near 
the  truth.  I  strongly  suspect  that  the  famous  incident  of  Said  Pasha 
taking  refuge  at  the  Bri'tish  Embassy  was  an  ingenious  trick  to  spy 
out  the  real  ideas  of  the  Ambassador.  Said  may  very  well  have  gone 
there  with  the  knowledge  and  privity  of  the  Sultan,  and  the  result  may 
have  convinced  the  Sultan  that  England  was  his  bitterest  personal  en- 


216  A  Long  Desert  Journey  [1896 

emy.  Certainly  from  the  day  of  Said's  return  to  his  own  house  things 
have  altered  at  Constantinople,  and  the  Sultan  has  gone  his  own  way 
without  seeking  any  more  to  be  on  'terms  with  us.1 

"  soth  Jan. —  Anne  and  I  start  on  Monday  for  a  considerable  journey 
in  the  southern  desert  beyond  Kalala.  Judith  goes  up  the  Nile  with 
Lady  Decies,  and  Sheykh  Obeyd  will  be  shut  up.  I  feel  better  and  in 
better  spirits,  though  the  future  is  dark  for  me.  If  this  next  summer 
brings  me  nothing  of  value  to  my  life  I  shall  not  return  to  England 
again.  Perhaps  I  may  find  my  hermitage  this  Spring  in  truth  and 
reality,  but  I  must  go  to  England  once  again  first,  to  solve  one  or  'two 
questions  and  complete  my  memoirs. 

"  yd  Feb. —  Our  party  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  is  broken  up.  Judith  went 
this  morning  to  Cairo,  and  will  stay  there  till  she  starts  up  the  Nile. 
Anne  and  I  leave  to-morrow  for  our  long  desert  journey,  it  ought  to 
be  an  interesting  one.  I  went  to-day  to  the  War  Office,  and  saw 
Wingate,  and  looked  over  maps  with  him.  .  I  find  that  almost  nothing  is 
known  of  the  country  south  of  Kalala,  so  that  we  shall  be  exploring  a 
new  region.  I  have  taken  tracings  of  such  maps  as  they  have  in  the 
Intelligence  Department,  and  they  are  not  much.  Floyer  has  also  sent 
me  tracings.  I  had  some  talk  with  Slatin,  a  commonplace  little  Ger- 
man, quite  unworthy  of  ever  having  served  the  Mahdi.  He  talked  a 
great  deal  about  the  prospects  of  reconquering  the  Soudan.  I  have 
been  reading  Kipling's  new  '  Jungle  Book,'  and  the  story  of  the  Indian 
Minister  who  became  a  fakir.  It  seems  to  me  the  only  worthy  ending 
of  a  public,  perhaps  of  a  private  life ;  but  it  wants  great  physical  cour- 
age to  endure." 

February  4th  to  26th  in  my  journal  is  taken  up  with  'the  diary  of  a 
camel  journey  made  by  Anne  and  me,  with  Suliman  Howeyti  and  two 
other  Bedouins  of  the  Howeytat,  under  the  guidance  of  Sobeyeh  Ibn 
Zeydan  of  the  Maaze  tribe,  through  the  Maaze  country  south  of  the 
Kalala  mountains  to  the  granite  range  of  Jebel  Ghareb  southwards  to 
Kufra,  Dokhan,  and  Kitar,  regaining  the  Nile  at  Keneh,  a  journey  of 
400  miles  of  uninhabited  desert,  made  in  twenty  days,  of  the  greatest 
possible  interest.  My  diary,  however,  is  little  more  than  an  itinerary  of 
each  day's  march,  suited  rather  for  a  paper  in  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  than  for  the  present  volume,  and  I  do  not  transcribe  it  here. 
It  was  for  the  most  part  through  an  entirely  unexplored  and  unmapped 
region.  We  returned  from  Keneh  by  steamer  to  Cairo.  All  that  I 
will  say  of  it  here  is  that  it  was  the  last  and  perhaps  the  hardest  of  all 
'the  many  desert  journeys  Lady  Anne  and  I  undertook  alone  together, 
and  as  such  stands  out  in  my  memory  as  one  of  the  most  delightful.  I 
made  a  rough  map  of  our  route  for  private  use,  not  for  the  Geographical 
Society  (of  which  I  am  almost  the  oldest  member),  because  I  have 

1  Compare  Dr.  Dillon's  "  Eclipse  of  Russia." 


1896]  Italian  Defeat  in  Abyssinia  217 

long  convinced  myself  that  it  makes  itself  the  precursor  and  instrument 
of  Europe's  penetrations  and  conquests  against  the  wild  races  of  man- 
kind. 

"  "jth  March. —  Back  at  Sheykh  Obeyd.  Great  things  have  happened 
since  we  were  away.  First  and  foremost  the  Italians  have  been 
smashed  in  Abyssinia,  thoroughly  and  I  hope  finally.  They  have  most 
richly  deserved  it.  The  whole  history  of  their  doings  on  the  Red  Sea 
has  been  a  disgrace  even  to  this  graceless  nineteenth  century.  They 
went  there  at  our  bidding  in  1884,  a  job  of  Lord  Northbrook's  when 
we  were  in  straits  with  the  Mahdi  and  thought  they  might  help  us.  We 
gave  them  Massowa,  which  did  not  belong  to  us,  but  to  Egypt,  Egypt, 
of  which  we  said  we  were  acting  as  guardians  and  trustees.  At  first 
they  occupied  the  island  only,  then  little  by  little  they  encroached  upon 
the  mainland  on  the  plea  of  wanting  a  hill  station,  then  they  made 
leonine  treaties  with  the  king  and  encroached  more  and  more,  and  then 
they  put  forward  pretensions  for  a  protectorate.  Next  they  made  a 
dash  at  Kassala  and  captured  it  from  the  Soudanese.  This  turned  their 
vanitous  heads,  and  nothing  would  serve  them  but  they  must  make  war 
again  with  Menelik,  wanting  to  grab  the  whole  country.  Menelik  pre- 
tended to  yield,  for  the  Abyssinians  are  cunning,  but  let  loose  an  army 
of  Chouans  upon  them.  The  Italians  were  defeated  and  shut  up  in  a 
fortress.  The  fortress  was  invested  and  at  last  capitulated  on  good 
terms  granted  them  by  Menelik,  who,  though  victorious,  asked  for 
peace.  His  magnanimity,  however,  was  put  down  at  once  in  Italy  to 
cowardice,  the  '  heroic '  Italian  defenders  of  the  fortress  were  treated 
as  if  they  had  been  conquerors,  and  pretensions  were  put  forward  of 
annexing  the  whole  of  Abyssinia.  Menelik,  however,  calmly  went  on, 
all  sections  of  the  Abyssinians  joining  him,  and  proposed  as  an  alterna- 
tive condition  of  peace,  that  the  Italians  should  return  to  their  original 
quarters  at  Massowa;  and  war  was  renewed.  The  Italians  then  sent 
50,000  men  from  Italy,  but  their  General  would  not  wait  for  the  sup- 
ports, fearing  to  be  superseded,  and  with  15,000  men  gave  battle,  and 
has  now  been  entirely  destroyed.  The  Italians  have  lost  60  cannons 
and  10,000  men,  all  most  probably  killed,  and  are  being  swept  into  Vhe 
sea.  This  is  a  righteous  ending  to  their  iniquities.  It  is  enough  to 
make  one  repent  of  ever  having  wasted  sympathy  on  liberty,  -to  see 
these  Italians,  hardly  released  from  their  Austrian  bondage,  counting 
it  a  glory  for  their  mushroom  kingdom  of  Italy  to  attack  and  enslave  the 
oldest  free  people  and  kingdom  in  the  world  —  for  the  Abyssinian  mon- 
archy dates  from  before  the  time  of  King  Solomon  —  and  there  was 
not  a  voice  in  Europe  to  cry  shame !  All  the  English  papers  applauded. 
'  The  wiping  out  of  the  little  kingdom  of  Abyssinia  won't  make  much 
difference,'  they  said,  '  on  the  Stock  Exchange.'  But  for  once  Provi- 
dence has  answered  '  No.'  Crispi,  the  Italian  minister,  formerly  a 


218  Jameson  Feted  in  London  [1896 

revolutionist,  now  a  renegade  tyrant,  has  fallen.  He  will  be  lucky  if 
he  does  not  get  torn  to  pieces  in  the  streets,  and  it  will  fare  hard  with 
the  Italian  monarchy.  The  Duke  of  Sermoneta,  who  was  at  Cairo 
amusing  himself,  has  been  sent  for  to  Rome.  He  has  always  been  an 
opponent  of  the  Colonial  policy,  but  he  will  be  too  late  even  if  they 
make  him  minister. 

"  Next  the  Transvaal  business  has  developed.  Jameson  and  his 
band  have  been  feted  in  London,  and  old  Kruger  must,  I  think,  be  sorry 
he  did  not  hang  them.  It  would  have  been  the  best  policy,  for  English- 
men are  co-wards  in  the  face  of  hanging,  and  we  should  have  had  no 
more  filibustering  for  at  least  a  generation.  Rhodes,  too,  has  been  to 
England,  and  seems  to  have  squared  'the  Opposition.  The  inquiry  is 
to  be  put  off,  and,  if  possible,  shirked,  and  I  fancy  Chamberlain  has 
saved  his  bacon.  It  is  more  obvious,  however,  than  ever  that  he  was 
in  with  Rhodes  and  Jameson,  though  possibly  they  acted  without  his 
exact  knowledge  at  the  last  moment.  But  the  British  public  is  easily 
gulled,  and  Chamberlain's  protestations  of  innocence  have  been  swal- 
lowed even  by  the  opposition  papers  and  Sir  William  Harcourt.  It  is 
a  base  world  and  will  not  prosper  —  but  it  tries  one's  patience  to  have  to 
wait  to  see  the  end  of  it. 

"  T.  P.  Gill  has  been  here  twice  this  week.  He  has  come  here  for  his 
health  and  to  pick  up  ideas  about  evacuation,  and  I  have  got  him  an 
audience  of  the  Khedive.  He  saw  Cromer  on  Thursday,  who  told  him 
all  the  usual  story  about  the  wickedness  of  Abbas  and  his  unfitness  to 
reign.  Gill's  impression  is  that  he  will  try  to  get  him  deposed.  Cromer 
also  fancies  the  French  will  come  to  terms  which  will  leave  him,  Cromer, 
still  in  power  here,  but  this  will  not  be.  It  seems,  however,  certain 
that  negotiations  are  going  on  between  the  French  and  English  govern- 
ments relative  to  the  evacuation.  McDonnell  has  acknowledged  the 
memorandum  I  sent  to  Lord  Salisbury,  who  'thinks  I  will  understand 
that  he  cannot  write  just  now  on  the  subject  of  it ' —  which  is  the  case. 
At  any  rate  Lord  Salisbury  has  read  it,  and  that  is  something. 

"  Gill  was  very  interesting  in  his  account  of  Parnell's  last  days.  He 
saw  much  of  him  in  all  the  time,  both  before  the  divorce  trial  and  dur- 
ing the  party  split  which  followed.  It  was  he  who  carried  on  the 
negotiations  with  Dillon  and  O'Brien  when  they  were  at  Paris,  and  he 
left  the  party  when  these  failed.  He  tells  me  that  Parnell  had  a  com- 
plete case  in  defence  against  O'Shea,  O'Shea  having  connived  through- 
out and  profited  in  a  money  way.  The  house  at  Eltham  was  really 
Parnell's,  and  O'Shea  went  there  to  blackmail  him.  He  showed  his 
whole  defence  to  Gill  before  the  trial.  But  Mrs.  O'Shea  would  not 
allow  him  to  defend  himself  as  she  wanted  a  divorce  so  as  to  marry 
him.  She  was  a  woman  quite  unworthy  of  him,  who  neither  sym- 
pathized with  his  politics  nor  at  all  appreciated  the  height  of  his  posi- 


1896]  Our  Government's  Fiasco  219 

tion.  Later  again  when  Parnell  would  have  agreed  to  retire  for  a 
while  from  the  party,  and  was  quite  willing  to  make  peace,  she  always 
stood  in  the  way  of  it  —  and  he  used  to  come  back  from  Brighton 
changed  and  uncompromising.  Lastly  his  devotion  'to  her  and  the 
worry  of  his  public  life  was  too  much  for  him,  and  she  really  hastened 
his  end  by  her  exigencies.  I  asked  him  whether  he  committed  suicide. 
But  he  was  emphatic  that  it  was  not  so.  '  Parnell/  he  said,  '  was  the 
last  man  in  the  world  to  do  it.  He  was  a  fighter  to  his  last  breath,  and 
would  not  give  in.  It  was  the  worry  and  the  strain  of  fighting  that 
ended  him.' 

"  Evelyn  has  come  and  is  staying  with  us. 

"  I2th  March. —  Evelyn  and  Gill  have  gone.  The  Armenian  Blue 
Books  are  published.  They  show,  as  far  as  I  can  judge  by  the  extracts 
given,  'that  our  Government  has  made  a  complete  diplomatic  fiasco. 
Philip  seems  to  have  had  really  nothing  to  go  upon  for  his  trust  in 
Russian  and  French  co-operation,  and  it  has  been  exactly  the  old  game 
of  taking  a  threat  to  be  as  good  as  a  blow,  which  Lord  Granville  was 
so  fond  of.  Of  course  the  whole  truth  is  not  given  in  the  Blue  Book. 
The  reason  for  taking  up  the  question  in  1895,  rather  than  at  any  other 
time  was,  I  have  no  doubt,  to  make  a  diversion  for  the  Egyptian  ques- 
tion. It  was  probably  the  reason,  too,  why  Lord  Salisbury  was  so 
foolish  as  to  continue  his  predecessor's  error.  Nothing  can  excuse  his 
having  put  the  threat  to  Turkey  into  'the  Queen's  speech  if  he  was  not 
prepared  to  act  up  to  it. 

"  i$th  March. —  The  English  papers  have  come,  telling  of  the  Italian 
defeat  at  Adowa,  no  trace  in  any  of  them  of  the  smallest  sympathy  with 
the  Abyssinians  or  of  disapproval  of  the  wanton  invasion  of  their 
country.  All  sense  of  the  rights  of  weaker  nations  is  lost  in  Europe 
even  among  the  best  and  most  generous  of  nations. 

"  i^th  March. —  Mohammed  Abdu  was  here  to-day  and  tells  me 
there  is  some  prospect  now  of  Arabi's  being  allowed  to  return  first  to 
Cyprus,  then  to  Egypt.  Mustapha  Fehmy,  the  Prime  Minister,  has 
spoken  to  him  about  it,  and  says  that  Lord  Cromer  is  willing  if  the 
Khedive  consents.  If  this  is  so  the  thing  ought  to  be  managed. 

"  i$th  March. —  Sheykh  Saleh,  the  Sheykh  of  the  mukajjerin,  the 
refugees  from  Dongola,  called  to-day.  He  says  that  Kitchener  has 
told  him  the  Government  intends  to  advance  to  Abu  Hamad  and  Berber 
as  soon  as  the  railway  is  finished  to  Wady  Haifa.  This  can  hardly 
be,  however,  for  several  years.  He  assures  me  the  people  of  Berber 
would  be  willing,  and  of  Abu  Hamad,  but  the  Khalifa  is  5*1111  powerful. 
Berber  he  declares  to  be  the  key  of  the  Soudan,  as  all  roads  converge 
there. 

"  i6th  March. —  It  is  announced  that  an  advance  is  to  be  made  im- 
mediately to  Dongola  by  arrangement  with  the  German  and  Austrian 


22O  The  Advance  on  Dongola  [1896 

Governments,  so  as  to  make  a  diversion  in  favour  of  the  Italians  at 
Kassala.  There  is  no  doubt  that  troops  have  been  forwarded  up  the 
river  for  some  time  past,  as  long  ago  as  when  we  were  on  our  way 
down  from  Keneh  (a  fortnight  ago),  but  the  final  decision  to  advance 
must  have  been  come  to  suddenly.  Even  now  I  can  hardly  believe  it, 
it  would  be  a  most  flagrant  sacrifice  of  Egyptian  for  European  interests, 
although  there  would  probably  be  little  resistance  at  Dongola;  it  must 
entail  a  re-opening  of  the  war  with  the  Soudan,  and  what  has  Italy 
done  for  Egypt  to  deserve  Egyptian  help? 

"  2Oth  March. —  I  wrote  to  the  '  Times  '  in  the  sense  of  my  first  im- 
pression of  the  affair,  but  I  find  that  the  facts  are  even  more  damning 
to  our  government  than  I  had  supposed,  and  for  once  I  have  done 
Cromer  an  injustice.  Anne  saw  Lady  Cromer  on  Thursday  and  she 
complained  bitterly  to  her  of  the  thing  having  been  decided  by  Lord 
Salisbury  '  over  Lord  Cromer's  head/  who  had  strongly  disapproved  of 
it.  Moreover,  Mohammed  Abdu,  who  was  here  yesterday,  tells  me 
that  the  Egyptian  Ministry  was  also  opposed,  Mustapha  Fehmy  saying 
that  they  had  no  money,  and  that  it  was  impossible.  Even  the  Khedive, 
who  was  keen  on  an  advance  to  Dongola  two  years  ago,  objected  to 
fighting  for  Italy,  though  I  hear  from  Hadji  Mahmoud  that  His  High- 
ness is  to  start  up  the  river  the  day  after  to-morrow.  Hadji  Mahmoud 
got  the  news  from  Ali  Pasha  Lalla,  and  the  vice-regal  camels  have 
already  been  despatched  by  train  to  Girgeh.  I  am  sorry  he  should  in- 
tend this,  as  he  will  get  into  trouble  if  he  has  done  it  off  his  own  bat, 
and  if  at  the  suggestion  of  Kitchener  or  Cromer  they  will  turn  it  to 
his  disadvantage.  Mohammed  Abdu,  however,  was  to  see  him  to- 
morrow, and  I  hope  will  give  him  good  advice. 

"  I  sit  most  of  the  day  at  Sheykh  Obeyd's  tomb,  watching  the  birds 
through  a  glass.  There  are  half-a-dozen  kinds  nesting  in  the  sont 
bushes  there :  the  Nubian  shrike,  a  kind  of  blackcap  with  a  black  throat, 
the  Palestine  redstart,  and  two  small  warblers.  There  are  also  the 
thrush,  the  Egyptian  dove,  the  crow,  a  pair  of  spotted  cuckoos,  a 
hoopoo,  and  a  chat. 

"  22nd  March. —  A  large  party  of  visitors.  Lady  Galloway,  who 
has  come  back  from  a  journey  up  the  Nile,  which  she  has  made  with 
Lady  Jersey.  Then  the  Potocki  party,  Joseph  and  his  wife,  Zamoyski 
and  his  wife,  Prince  Radziwill  and  two  other  Poles.  We  had  tea  at 
the  tomb  and  showed  off  the  horses. 

"  It  is  certain  now  that  Cromer  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  new 
Soudan  campaign,  the  thing  having  been  arranged  between  the  Em- 
peror of  Germany  and  Frank  Lascelles  (this  was  the  account  given  me 
by  our  Polish  friends).  The  Emperor,  I  imagine,  has  promised  to 
support  our  staying  on  in  Egypt  in  return  for  the  help  given  by  us 


1896]  Kaiser  Wilhelm  and  the  King  of  Italy  221 

vicariously  to  his  ally  the  King  of  Italy.  I  notice  already  an  announce- 
ment that  Germany  does  not  intend  to  be  otherwise  than  friendly  to 
Japan,  which  is  also  probably  part  of  the  arrangement.  It  means  in 
any  case  that  we  are  to  have  a  new  lease  of  occupation  here.  About  the 
advantage  or  disadvantage  to  Egypt  nobody  seems  to  have  thought  or 
cared.  I  have  written  to  John  Morley,  giving  him  my  view  of  what 
is  going  on,  as  I  see  he  has  brought  the  matter  forward  in  Parliament. 
It  was  through  him  that  we  stopped  the  Soudan  war  eleven  years  ago. 

"  24th  March. —  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu  called  to  tell  me  what  is 
going  on  at  the  palace.  He  sees  the  Khedive  now  twice  a  week,  and 
leads  the  prayer  on  Fridays  at  Koubbah,  omitting  the  Sultan's  name. 
He  was  with  the  Khedive  some  little  time  ago,  and  while  he  was  there, 
a  letter  came  from  Lord  Cromer,  complaining  of  the  Khedive's  having 
privately  expressed  disapproval  of  the  Dongola  campaign.  The 
Khedive  was  very  angry  at  this,  and  afterwards  saw  Lord  Cromer, 
who  repeated  the  complaint.  The  Khedive  answered  'that  upon  this 
point  he  was  in  agreement  with  his  Lordship,  to  which  Lord  Cromer 
did  not  dissent,  but  said  that  now  that  the  thing  was  resolved  on,  it 
was  necessary  to  put  a  good  face  on  it,  and  hoped  'that  the  Khedive 
would  speak  in  that  sense  to  the  soldiers.  The  Khedive  has  done  so 
since.  Lord  Cromer,  too,  has  brought  him  a  message  from  Lord  Salis- 
bury, apologizing  for  an  '  error  of  form '  on  the  part  of  the  English 
Government  in  ordering  an  advance  on  Dongola  without  first  informing 
His  Highness.  Lord  Salisbury  explained  that  the  advance  was  de- 
cided on  '  to  satisfy  Egyptian  opinion.'  The  Khedive  narrated  all  this 
to  Mohammed  Abdu,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  true. 

"  2$th  March. —  The  English  papers  of  the  I7th  and  i8th  came  to- 
day. Lord  Salisbury's  statement  in  the  House  of  Lords  is  amazing. 
He  has  made  no  such  deliberate  misstatement  of  an  important  truth 
since  the  Congress  of  Berlin. 

"  A  large  party  to  spend  the  afternoon,  brought  over  by  Lady  Gallo- 
way ;  Lord  Yarborough,  Benson,  the  author  of  '  Dodo,'  and  others.  She 
brought  with  her  Arthur  Balfour's  speech  and  Lord  Salisbury's  declara- 
tion. 

"  26th  March. —  Sheykh  Hassan  Abu  Towil  called  to  tell  me  that 
the  Government  had  assembled  the  Sheykhs  of  the  tribes  between  As- 
souan and  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  to  confer  with  them  as  to  the  raising 
of  7,000  horsemen  for  the  Soudan  war.  Their  answer  so  far  has  been 
that  they  have  neither  horses  nor  arms.  He  asked  my  advice.  I  ad- 
vised him  strongly  to  get  out  of  the  matter  if  he  could,  as  the  war  will 
prove  a  bad  business  for  Bedouins  engaged  in  it.  I  doubted  if  one  in 
five  would  return.  He  told  me  that  in  former  wars  the  Bedouins  had 
never  been  called  to  go  out  of  their  own  district  where  they  had  acted 


222  The  Khedive  on  the  Dongola  Campaign  [1896 

as  guards.  It  would  be  better  to  say  at  once  'the  men  were  unwilling 
to  go  to  a  distance.  He  promised  to  bring  Abu  Shedid  (head  Sheykh 
of  the  Howeytat)  with  him  to-morrow  to  consult. 

"  27//J  March. —  A  letter  from  Lady  Lyfton.  She  tells  me :  '  Rhodes 
knew  about  Jameson's  advance  on  the  Transvaal,  but  certainly  not 
Chamberlain,  though  he  may  have  encouraged  Rhodes  too  much.'  Just 
so.  It  means  that  Chamberlain  told  Rhodes  not  to  tell  him  the  details, 
but  gave  him  to  understand  that  he  would  be  pleased  at  the  fait  ac- 
compli. About  the  Soudan  expedition  she  had  great  confidence  in  Lord 
Salisbury,  though  '  one  knows  that  what  comes  out  in  Parliament  is  all 
arranged.' 

"  3O/A  March. —  Received  a  note  from  Abdin,  granting  me  audience 
of  the  Khedive  for  to-day,  so  to-day  I  went  there.  He  asked  me  first 
about  our  journey  to  Ghareb  and  Keneh,  which  interested  him  much, 
but  we  soon  got  to  politics.  He  gave  me  a  full  account  of  what  hap- 
pened regarding  the  advance  on  Dongola.  The  question  was  begun 
soon  after  the  battle  of  Adowa  by  the  arrival  in  Egypt  of  our  military 
attache  at  Rome  (Slade?),  when  a  council  was  held,1  consisting  of 
Knollys,  Kitchener,  the  attache,  and  Cromer.  At  this  they  decided  to 
send  a  force  from  Tokar  'to  Kassala  to  take  over  that  town  from  the 
Italians  and  garrison  it  with  Egyptian  troops  —  this  with  the  consent 
of  Italy,  and  Cromer  telegraphed  their  decision  to  Lord  Salisbury. 
The  Egyptian  Government  were  not  consulted,  only  informed  of  this, 
and  gave  consent.  After  'this  they  knew  nothing  till,  on  the  I3th 
March,  Lord  Cromer  received  a  telegram  from  London,  saying  an  im- 
mediate advance  on  Dongola  had  been  ordered.  Kitchener  was  in  bed, 
and  not  at  all  expecting  it.  Neither  he  nor  Cromer  had  recommended 
it;  and,  in  fact,  they  disapproved.  The  next  day  was  Beiram,  and 
after  the  mosque,  Mustapha  Fehmy  was  informed  of  it  by  Cromer  or 
Kitchener,  I  am  not  sure  which,  and  i't  was  not  till  7.30  that  the  Khedive 
learnt  it  from  Mustapha  Fehmy.  He  refused  his  consent  until  a  Coun- 
cil of  Ministers  had  been  called,  especially  because  of  a  demand  made 
that  Suakim  should  be  handed  over  to  England.  He  disapproved  of  the 
expedition  on  account  of  the  hot  time  of  year  and  the  suffering  of  the 
men  and  the  increased  cost  of  land  transport  at  Low  Nile,  also  because 
it  was  made  in  no  Egyptian  interest.  At  the  Council  Kitchener  with- 
drew the  demand  for  Suakim.  When  asked  about  it,  he  said  that  it 
was  not  in  question.  Consent  was  then  formally  given  to  the  rest  of 
plan.  Cromer  had  since  come  to  complain  of  his,  Abbas',  having 
talked  against  the  war,  and  had  threatened  to  write  against  him  in  the 
Blue  Books.  Abbas  had  answered  that  he  objected  on  account  of  the 
time  of  year  and  the  cost,  not  in  itself  to  the  re-occupation  of  Dongola. 
'  Oh,'  said  Cromer,  '  in  that  I  am  with  you,  but  you  ought  to  be  glad 

1 A  fortnight  or  three  weeks  before  Beiram. 


1896]  King  Menelik  of  Abyssinia  223 

to  help  the  King  of  Italy.  He  gave  hospitality  to  your  grandfather  for 
many  years  at  Naples.'  '  Yes/  answered  Abbas,  '  and  made  him  pay 
pretty  heavily  for  it  too.'  (Ismail  lent  a  very  large  sum  to  the  King, 
which  I  believe  was  never  repaid.)  Cromer  asked  the  Khedive  to 
write  for  publication  an  address  'to  the  Army  approving  the  objects  of 
the  campaign;  but  Abbas  declined,  saying  it  was  not  necessary  to  talk 
politics  to  soldiers.  He  promised,  however,  to  exhort  them  to  obey 
orders  and  do  their  duty.  This  he  has  repeatedly  done.  I  asked  him 
whether  Kitchener  had  recommended  'the  Dongola  campaign,  and  he 
said  '  No ;  he  knew  nothing  of  it  till  he  woke  up  out  of  his  bed.'  Also 
as  to  the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  whom  I  suspected  of  having  arranged 
it,  '  No,  he  is  an  old  man,  too  old  to  conceal  anything,  and  as  we  had  a 
deal  of  talk  together  I  should  have  found  out.' 

"  The  Khedive  also  told  me  the  detail  of  letters  written  to  the  Queen 
and  to  himself  by  King  Mangasheh  of  Abyssinia,  complaining,  to  the 
first,  that  he,  being  an  old  ally  of  England,  England  had  nevertheless 
supplied  arms  to  the  Italians.  Mangasheh  is  a  son  of  King  John, 
whom  we  put  on  the  throne.  His  letter  to  the  Egyp'dan  Government 
was  to  propose  joint  action  against  the  Khalifa,  in  order  to  recover  his 
crown,  which  had  been  taken  from  him  and  carried  away  to  Omdur- 
man.  In  his  letter  to  the  Queen  he  asked  England's  good  offices  with 
Italy  for  a  peace.  Both  these  letters  were  written  before  the  battle  of 
Adowa,  and  were  conveyed  to  Cairo  by  a  cousin  of  Mangasheh.  They 
were  translated  at  the  Cairo  War  Office.  The  Queen's  answer  was  in 
general  terms,  hoping  that  peace  would  be  made.  The  answer  sent  by 
Lord  Cromer,  in  the  name  of  the  Egyptian  Government,  was  a  proposal 
that  Mangasheh  should  advance  on  Omdurman,  when  they  would  to- 
gether get  back  the  crown,  and  Mangasheh  should  be  recognized  King 
of  Abyssinia.  Mangasheh,  however,  Abbas  said,  would  never  go 
against  Menelik,  as  his  father  John  had  specially  recommended  him  to 
recognize  Menelik  as  Emperor.  Mangasheh's  envoy  went  away  dis- 
satisfied, especially  with  the  presents  given  him,  which  had  been  sup- 
plied by  'the  Secret  Service  Fund  of  the  Egyptian  War  Office,  namely, 
a  gold  watch,  a  musical  box,  a  red  umbrella,  and  some  dresses,  which 
he  told  the  Khedive  he  should  be  ashamed  to  deliver  to  the  King,  as 
they  were  the  same  as  those  worn  by  prostitutes  in  Abyssinia.  They 
were  chosen  by  Kitchener.  The  Khedive  said  it  would  be  a  good  thing 
if  I  wrote  an  article  in  conformity  with  wha't  he  had  told  me;  and 
I  promised  to  do  so,  but  without  compromising  him.  In  going  away 
I  asked  him  to  allow  Arabi  to  return  to  Egypt ;  and  he  questioned  me 
about  him,  and  I  told  him  what  an  honest  patriot  he  was.  and  that  I 
would  make  myself  answerable  for  his  loyalty.  He  promised  me  that 
he  would  speak  to  Mustapha  Fehmy  about  it,  and  I  think  he  means  it. 
He  said :  '  What  you  tell  me  about  him  I  must  believe,  for  nobody  who 


224  Gorst  on  the  Campaign  [1896 

knows  you  can  doubt  that  you  are  the  best  friend  that  Egypt  has.'  And 
so  we  parted.  I  was  again  much  struck  with  his  great  intelligence  and 
power  of  expressing  his  thoughts. 

"  yrd  April. —  I  have  been  writing  an  article,  '  The  Truth  of  the 
Dongola  Adventure,'  for  the  '  Ninteenth  Century.' 

"  I  see  they  have  been  pushing  George  Curzon  with  questions  in  the 
House  of  Commons  about  Cromer's  approval  of  the  campaign  —  this  I 
doubt  not  in  consequence  of  a  letter  I  wrote  to  Morley,  telling  him 
that  Cromer  had  certainly  not  recommended  it. 

"  7th  April. —  Dawkins  (the  new  financial  adviser)  was  here  'to-day, 
and  tells  me  that  the  half  million  sterling  taken  from  the  Caisse  de  la 
Dette  has  been  spent  already.  The  whole  savings  of  Egypt  will  have 
been  used  up  before  the  campaign  seriously  begins. 

"  Young  Somerset  and  his  bride,  Lady  Katherine,  came  on  Saturday, 
a  pleasing  pair,  who  propose  going  to  the  Natron  lakes  on  camels.  I 
tried  to  dissuade  her,  as  she  has  never  yet  been  on  a  camel,  and  there 
was  the  chance  of  great  heat  so  late  in  the  year,  but  on  Sunday,  Easter 
night,  there  was  a  thunder  shower,  and  the  weather  has  become  almost 
cold. 

"  loth  April. —  Gorst  and  his  sister  came  to  luncheon.  He,  like 
Dawkins,  evidently  disapproves  of  the  war.  He  says  that  it  will  end  in 
England's  having  to  make  the  campaign  at  her  own  cost,  as  Egypt  has 
neither  the  money  nor  the  men.  I  am,  however  convinced  that  it  will 
be  put  a  stop  to  as  soon  as  a  convenient  pretext  occurs.  There  is  a 
report  that  the  Italians  have  evacuated  Kassala.  Also  the  Matabeles 
have  risen  and  killed  a  number  of  the  Chartered  Company's  people, 
and  are  besieging  Bulawayo.  The  Chartered  Company  have  no  troops, 
and  English  regiments  will  have  to  be  sent  to  the  Cape,  and  there  will  be 
none  to  spare  for  a  Soudanese  campaign.  I  wish  the  Matabeles  all 
possible  good  fortune,  and  trust  they  may  capture  Rhodes,  who  is  said 
to  be  on  his  way  from  Fort  Salisbury  to  Bulawayo.  The  man,  how- 
ever, is  too  sly,  I  fancy,  to  be  caught,  or  to  run  any  personal  risks,  and 
a  telegram  to-day  says  he  is  laid  up  with  a  fever,  and  unable  to  move ! 
The  Dongola  expedition,  therefore,  will,  in  my  opinion,  get  very  little 
farther  than  Akasheh.  Gorst  tells  me  it  is  true  tha't  Rhodes  took  away 
with  him  200  negroes  from  Cairo.  He  says  they  '  volunteered.'  But 
the  grounds  of  his  belief  seem  slight.  '  I  inquired,'  he  said,  '  whether 
they  were  going  willingly,  and  was  told  that  they  were.'  He  is  much 
averse  to  the  seizure  of  black  men,  as  practised  by  the  Sirdar  Kitchener, 
for  the  Egyptian  army,  and  told  me  confidentially  that  he  had  had  the 
intention  of  putting  a  stop  to  it,  as  it  is  quite  illegal.  But  the  campaign 
had  interfered  with  his  project.  There  has  been  a  general  raid  on  all 
negroes  in  Egypt.  They  are  seized  and  forced  to  serve  in  the  army 
on  very  small  pay  —  I  think  thirty  piastres  a  month,  twopence  half- 


1896]  Rhodes  Conscripts  Black  Men  in  Egypt  225 

penny  a  day  —  and  are  there  practically  slaves  for  life  —  or  rather  for 
as  long  as  they  are  able  to  serve  —  for  when  past  work  in  the  army,  they 
are  pitilessly  cast  adrift  without  pension  or  provision  of  any  kind. 
Yet  we  English  pretend  that  our  mission  in  Africa  is  to  put  down 
slave-raiding  and  slavery.  The  English  officers  at  Wady  Haifa  told 
me  last  autumn  that  it  was  as  precisely  slavery  as  any  existing  in  the 
world. 

"  We  are  leaving  for  England  on  the  i/th.  I  am  glad  to  go,  having 
been  seven  mon'ths  away. 

"  i2th  April. —  Young  Gordon  (General  Gordon's  nephew,  Bill)  is 
here  with  his  wife.  He  confirms  about  the  spending  of  the  half  million 
by  Kitchener,  but  says  the  expedition  is  being  done  very  cheaply.  He 
has  the  ordering  and  arranging  of  the  supplies,  and  says  that  the  new 
equipments,  saddles,  arms,  etc.,  have  only  cost  £20,000.  He,  like  Gorst 
and  Dawkins,  considers  the  Intelligence  Department  absurdly  over- 
rated and  overpaid.  Wingate  and  Slatin  between  them  get  £1,700  a 
year.  Gordon  has  had  some  experience  of  the  department,  having  been 
employed  under  it  at  Souakim,  and  he  knows  how  the  information 
brought  in  is  cooked,  and  how  the  spies  suit  their  news  to  'the  demand. 
I  asked  him  about  the  negroes  taken  away  by  Rhodes.  He  thinks  it 
likely  that  they  were  handed  over  by  the  agent  of  the  Zanzibar  Govern- 
ment (which  had  been  recruiting  in  Egypt).  He  himself  supplied 
Rhodes  with  uniforms  for  them  out  of  the  public  stores  '  at  a  good 
price.'  He  saw  a  great  deal  of  Rhodes  during  the  few  days  Rhodes 
was  at  Cairo. 

"  i$th  April. —  They  are  apparently  at  a  deadlock  on  the  frontier, 
the  Finance  Ministry  being  angry  with  Kitchener  for  spending  all  the 
money.  It  must  eventually  fall  on  the  English  exchequer,  if  persisted 
in.  But  I  still  hope  Lord  Salisbury  will  be  satisfied  with  the  demon- 
stration and  go  no  farther. 

"  ijth  April. —  We  leave  to-morrow  morning  for  England.  Moham- 
med Abdu  was  here  yesterday  with  a  young  Turk  of  the  Liberal  party 
from  Constantinople.  He  was  employed  till  lately  in  the  Ottoman 
bank.  He  seems  not  very  hopeful  of  things  on  the  Bosphorus,  there 
being  too  many  persons  in  high  places  interested  in  keeping  the  present 
system  going.  The  army,  though  no  better  affected  than  the  rest  to 
the  Sultan,  is  without  any  leader  for  a  revolt,  and  as  long  as  it  can 
be  paid  it  will  do  nothing.  The  civilian  population  has  no  power  to 
move. 

"  Mohammed  Abdu  gave  me  particulars  about  the  raid  there  has 
been  made  on  the  negroes  in  Egypt.  Over  800  have  been  seized  by  the 
police  for  Kitchener  and  put  into  the  army.  In  some  of  the  provinces 
every  black  man  of  whatever  age  was  taken  and  sent  to  Cairo,  where 
the  valid  ones  were  retained,  the  rest  turned  adrift  in  the  streets.  Yet 


226  George  Wyndham  and  Jameson  [1896 

our  Government  talks  of  putting  down  the  Slave  Trade  as  one  of  its 
objects  in  this  Soudanese  war.  There  seems  to  be  no  doub't  that  the 
200  negroes  taken  by  Rhodes  to  South  Africa  were  practically  pur- 
chased from  the  Government  of  Zanzibar,  which  has  '  recruited  '  them 
here.  In  the  recent  raid  negroes  holding  respectable  positions  were 
seized,  among  them  a  son  of  the  Khedive's  porter,  the  servan't  of  El 
Abbasi,  Sheykh  of  the  Azhar,  and  a  writer  employed  at  £7  a  month  in 
the  Native  Courts  at  Cairo.  These  were  rescued,  but  very  many 
others  were  driven  off. 

"  I  spent  my  last  day,  a  very  lovely  one,  in  the  garden  —  the  roses 
well  in  bloom,  the  nightingales  singing,  bee  birds  flying  about,  a  roller 
sitting  near  the  tomb,  and  in  the  evening  a  jackal.  I  lit  two  candles 
there  for  Sheykh  Obeyd  to  get  us  a  good  passage  home.  We  had  our 
Mowled  there  on  Monday.  Old  Sheykh  Abderrahman  Faki  promises 
to  say  prayers  for  me  in  my  absence,  but  expostulates  that  I  do  not  go 
to  his  mosque.  I  prefer  to  recite  my  Fatha  at  the  tomb." 

We  reached  London  on  the  evening  of  the  24th,  and  slept  there. 

"  2$th  April. —  Breakfasted  with  George  Wyndham.  We  are  to  go 
together  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Stratford  in  connection  with  a  monograph 
he  is  writing  on  Shakespeare.  He  has  the  practical  editorship  now  of 
the  '  New  Review,'  and  in  Parliament  is  making  a  cave  against  Cham- 
berlain, whom  he  agrees  with  me  in  considering  as  at  the  bottom  of  all 
the  Government  mischief.  He  says  there  is  no  doubt  in  the  world  that 
Chamberlain  was  in  with  Rhodes  and  Jameson  in  'their  attack  on  the 
Transvaal,  and  he  is  angry  with  him  for  having  backed  out  of  it,  and 
ruined  the  plot  at  the  last  moment  to  save  his  own  bacon.  He  has  been 
seeing  much  of  Jameson,  whom  he  likes,  and  of  the  gang  that  have 
been  running  the  Transvaal  business,  about  a  dozen  of  them,  with 
Buckle,  the  '  Times  '  editor,  and  Miss  Flora  Shaw  who,  he  told  me  con- 
fidentially, is  really  the  prime  mover  in  the  whole  thing,  and  who  takes 
the  lead  in  all  their  private  meetings,  a  very  clever  middle-aged  woman. 
George  made,  it  appears,  a  good  speech  in  the  House  ten  days  ago,  at- 
tacking the  Government  on  the  line  of  their  having  disarmed  the  Out- 
landers,  and  left  the  Chartered  Company  defenceless.  Chamberlain 
has  since  been  making  overtures  to  him  of  friendship,  and  has  been 
walking  about  with  him  ostentatiously  in  the  Lobby;  but,  seeing  this 
did  not  stop  George's  mouth,  he  has  since  shown  animosity.  I  warned 
George  that  Chamberlain  was  a  man  who  would  do  him  a  mischief  if 
he  could.  George  is  very  happy  with  all  this  busy  work. 

"  My  article  will  be  out  on  the  ist  duly  corrected  in  the  '  Nineteenth 
Century/  and  George  has  asked  me  to  write  him  another  for  his  June 
number  of  the  '  New  Review.'  I  shall  give  him  one  on  the  Moallaka't 
with  my  translation  of  Antar's  Ode. 

"  Old  Alfred  Montgomery  is  dead,  and  buried  with  a  wreath  from 


1896]  Morris  III  at  Hammersmith  227 

the  Prince  of  Wales  '  to  our  dear  friend.'  So  he  ought  to  sleep  happy 
to  the  Judgment  Day.  He  was  quite  the  last  of  the  old  D'Orsay  ser 
in  London,  and  remained  a  '  man  of  fashion,'  dining  out  to  the  end, 
though  he  died  actually  away  from  London  at  Burley,  with  his  daugh- 
ter, Edith  Finch. 

"  2&th  April. —  To  London  with  Anne.  Ralph  came  to  luncheon  in 
Mount  Street,  and  I  afterwards  dined  with  him.  He  showed  me  the 
whole  existing  correspondence  between  Byron  and  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"  14th  May. —  I  have  been  down,  for  the  most  part  alone,  at  New- 
buildings,  enjoying  a  wonderful  fortnight,  the  woods  lovely  in  green 
and  gold,  nightingales  singing  night  and  day  from  every  hedge,  quite 
a  dozen  close  to  the  house  so  that  one  can  hear  them  a't  any  hour  of 
the  night  chorussing  when  one  opens  a  window.  I  have  finished  my 
article  on  the  '  Poetry  of  the  Ignorance,'  and  am  half  way  through 
another  on  the  '  Origin  of  the  Arabian  Horse/  for  the  June  and  July 
numbers  of  the  '  New  Review.'  George  and  I  and  Sibell,  and  one  of 
the  girls,  are  to  go  'to  Stratford  on  Saturday.  I  lunched  to-day  with 
them  and  young  Rosslyn,  a  pleasant  specimen  of  the  golden  youth  of 
the  day. 

"  Then  to  Hammersmith,  where  I  found  my  poor  old  Morris  looking 
very  ill  and  aged,  toddling  feebly  in  front  of  his  house.  We  went  in 
together,  and  he  brightened  up,  and  told  me  of  his  maladies  in  a  cheerful 
not  too  desponding  way,  and  I  stayed  on  an  hour  or  more  and  had  tea 
with  him.  My  new  tapestry,  the  Botticelli,  is  finished,  and  I  am  to 
go  with  Mrs.  Morris  on  Saturday  to  see  it  in  Oxford  Street.  Morris 
showed  me  the  title-page  of  his  Chaucer,  which  is  about  the  finest 
thing  he  has  done,  the  whole  has  been  subscribed  for,  a  matter  of 
some  £9,000. 

"  Gill,  whom  I  saw  in  Mount  Street,  repeated  to  me  more  of  what 
Cromer  had  told  him  about  the  Soudan.  He  asked  Cromer  whether 
he  should  be  in  favour  of  an  advance  to  re-occupy  the  lost  provinces. 
In  reply  to  this  Cromer  had  told  him  that  some  time  or  other  the  Soudan 
would  have  to  be  reconquered  from  the  Khalifa,  but  the  question  was 
by  whom.  As  for  imposing  such  a  task  on  Egypt  he  was  most  em- 
phatic. '  I  should  never  'think,'  he  said,  '  of  proposing  that  the  poor 
fellahin  in  their  blue  shirts  should  be  charged  with  it.'  This,  it  is  as 
well  to  remember,  was  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  March,  and  within 
a  week  of  the  expedition  being  ordered  from  England. 

"  15^/1  May. —  Had  tea  with  Lady  Lytton  at  her  house  in  Sloane 
Street.  She  thinks  it  a  pity  I  should  have  written  what  I  have  about 
the  Dongola  campaign,  which  has  set  people  against  me  just  as  I  was 
coming  home.  By  '  people,'  I  suppose  she  means  the  Court,  and  I 
strongly  suspect  that  Her  Majesty  has  been  the  determining  cause  of 
the  forward  policy  in  Africa.  Lady  Lytton  was  at  pains  to  persuade 


228  With  George  Wyndham  at  Stratford  [1896 

me  that  it  was  entirely  Lord  Salisbury,  and  that  nobody  else  had  been 
consulted  about  it. 

"  i6th  May. —  Lunched  with  George  and  Sibell,  and  found  Madeline, 
his  mother,  there,  looking  fresh  and  well  and  younger  than  I  have 
seen  her  for  years,  and  came  on  with  them  in  the  afternoon  to  Stratford, 
where  we  now  are.  We  have  already  been  to  the  Church  and  the 
Grammar  School.  George  is  a  capital  companion  for  a  visit  of  this 
kind,  as  he  enjoys  sightseeing,  and  besides  knows  all  about  Shakespeare, 
and  has  his  theories  about  everything.  We  are  at  the  Shakespeare 
Hotel,  a  pleasant  inn  of  the  old  kind.  We  have  spent  the  evening 
reading  '  Venus  and  Adonis '  and  '  Lucrece.'  I  have  always  been  a 
great  admirer  of  these  two  pieces,  which  are  the  most  elaborate  and 
sustained  of  their  kind,  and  splendidly  rhetorical.  I  did  most  of  the 
reading  as  George  has  a  cold. 

"  ijth  May. —  A  beautiful  hot  day  which  we  spent  driving  round 
the  country  with  a  jibbing  horse.  We  went  to  Charlcote  and  wandered 
about  the  park,  and  then  to  Mary  Arden's  cottage,  and  to  Anne  Hatha- 
way's.  Both  cottages  are  interesting,  and  quite  untouched  and  un- 
restored,  the  latter  inhabited  still  by  a  descendant  of  the  Hathaways. 
It  is  after  all  no  such  long  way  back  to  Shakespeare's  time,  seven  gen- 
erations in  my  own  family,  and  I  think  people  largely  exaggerate  the 
changes  that  have  taken  place.  Remote  country  villages  can  have 
hardly  at  all  changed.  In  the  evening  I  read  them  translations  from 
the  Moallakat,  about  which  George  is  enthusiastic.  My  article  for  the 
'  New  Review '  has  put  him  upon  the  track  of  discovery  as  to  certain 
features  of  chivalry  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe,  a  subject  not  yet 
properly  traced  to  its  origin  in  Arabia.  We  have  had  a  thoroughly 
literary  two  days,  to  me  of  much  profit. 

"  iSth  May. —  Mary  joined  us  from  Stanway  with  Miss  Balfour, 
and  we  all  went  to  see  the  church  and  the  tomb,  then  back  to  London  in 
"the  afternoon. 

"  2oth  May. —  Dined  with  Pamela,  and  then  went  to  the  Foreign 
Office  party  in  honour  of  Her  Majesty's  birthday,  an  immense  crush, 
but  as  always  a  fine  sight,  and  many  people  one  knows. 

"  2gth  May. —  The  Morrises  have  been  here  at  Newbuildings  since 
Tuesday.  He,  poor  man,  very  feeble  and  aged.  I  fear  from  the  look 
of  things  that  it  is  some  form  of  consumption,  and  'that  he  will  not 
recover.  But  his  spirits  are  fairly  good,  and  he  talks  at  times  as  bril- 
liantly as  ever.  The  new  piece  of  tapestry  he  has  made  me,  Botticelli's 
Spring,  is  up  and  is  very  decorative  and  brilliant  in  the  drawing-room, 
though  'the  faces  are  hardly  as  good  as  they  ought  to  be.  It  has  been  a 
great  difficulty  to  execute  it,  he  says,  and  has  turned  out  better  than  he 
expected.  We  think  the  three  figures  with  the  flowers  are  March, 
April,  and  May.  We  have  had  many  interesting  'talks  on  art,  politics, 


1896]  Morris  on  the  Love  of  Beauty  229 

and  religion.  As  to  the  last  he  does  not  believe  in  any  God  the  Creator 
of  the  World,  or  any  Providence,  or,  I  think,  any  future  life.  But 
he  is  not  a  pessimist,  and  thinks  mankind  the  '  crown  of  things,'  in  spite 
of  man's  destructive  action  and  his  modern  craze  of  ugliness.  His 
illness  does  not  make  him  gloomy;  only  it  troubles  him  in  his  work. 

"  Swinburne's  new  poem  was  reviewed  yesterday  in  all  the  papers. 
Morris  thinks  it  poor  stuff  and  not  worth  doing,  as  the  story, '  Balin  and 
Balan,'  was  quite  perfect  in  its  prose  form  in  the  '  Morte  d'Arthur.' 
'  It  would  not  do,  however/  he  said,  '  for  Swinburne  to  hear  me  saying 
this,  for  he  would  never  forgive  me.'  Swinburne,  it  appears,  is  the 
most  sensitive  and  jealous  of  men,  and  cannot  bear  the  smallest  crit- 
icism. But  he  and  Morris  have  not  met  for  some  years,  though  Mrs. 
Morris  goes  now  and  then  to  see  Swinburne.  Tennyson,  Morris  says, 
was  the  same,  and  never  forgave  him  and  Burne-Jones  for  having  dis- 
approved of  his  bowdlerization  of  the  '  Morte  d'Arthur '  in  the  '  Idylls 
of  the  King.'  I  drove  Morris  yesterday  to  Crookhorn  and  a  little  way 
round.  He  is,  I  think,  happy  here.  The  oak  woods  are  new  to  him, 
though  he  was  born  in  Epping  Forest,  and  he  likes  the  multitude  of 
birds.  He  creeps  about  a  little  among  them  in  -the  sun. 

"  $ist  May  (Sunday}. —  The  Morrises  left  yesterday.  I  think  he 
enjoyed  himself  while  he  was  here,  and  he  talks  of  coming  back  for 
another  week  later,  and  of  our  making  a  drive  together  in  Epping 
Forest,  where  he  was  born.  But  I  fear  he  is  very  ill.  He  has  told  me 
something  of  his  origin.  His  father  was  a  bill  broker  in  the  Cfcy,  and 
he  himself  was  destined  for  that  trade.  '  If  I  had  gone  on  with  it,' 
he  said,  '  I  should  have  broken  the  bills  into  very  small  bits.  We  had 
some  mining  shares  in  Cornwall,  and  when  I  succeeded  to  them  I  sold 
them.  My  relations  thought  me  both  wicked  and  mad.  but  the  shares 
are  worth  nothing  now.'  I  took  him  yesterday  to  see  Shipley  Church, 
a  fine  old  Norman  tower,  injured  with  restoration.  He  was  very  in- 
dignant, swearing  at  the  parsons  as  we  walked  up  the  nave :  '  Beasts ! 
Pigs !  Damn  their  souls ! '  We  had  a  long  discussion  whether  the 
love  of  beauty  was  natural  or  acquired.  '  As  for  me,'  he  said,  '  I  have 
it  naturally,  for  neither  my  father,  nor  my  mother,  nor  any  of  my 
relations  had  the  least  idea  of  it.  I  remember  as  a  boy  going  into 
Canterbury  Cathedral  and  thinking  that  the  gates  of  heaven  had  been 
opened  to  me,  also  when  I  first  saw  an  illuminated  manuscript.  These 
first  pleasures  which  I  discovered  for  myself  were  stronger  than  any- 
thing else  I  have  had  in  life.'  He  talked  much  about  his  Iceland 
journey,  as  he  often  does,  and  has  a  sick  man's  fancy  to  go  there  again, 
for  it  would  do  him  good.  '  I  am  a  man  of  the  North,'  he  said.  '  I 
am  disappointed  a't  the  fine  weather  we  are  having  here.  I  had  hoped 
it  would  rain,  so  that  I  could  sit  indoors  and  watch  it  beating  on  the 
windows.' 


230  Royal  Influences  in  Diplomacy  [1896 

"  i st  June. —  Went  up  to  London  to  take  Anne  to  a  Geographical 
meeting,  where  Theodore  Bent  gave  some  account  of  his  travels  sou'th 
of  where  we  were  last  winter.  Like  all  our  geographers  nowadays  he 
is  an  arch  Jingo,  and  talked  of  opening  up  the  country  by  gold  digging 
as  if  it  would  be  a  work  of  piety.  The  Geographical  Society  has  lent 
itself  to  this  sort  of  thing  in  Africa  for  the  last  thirty  years. 

"  2nd  June. —  To  lunch  with  Judith  at  Margot's ;  a  great  treat. 
Margot  was  delightful  and  most  amusing.  We  found  her  with  Lady 
Greville,  who  had  come  to  interview  her,  on  'the  subject  of  women 
cross  country  riders,  for  some  magazine.  Margot  was  splendid  in  her 
description  of  the  various  styles  of  riding,  and  of  the  falls  and  smashes 
she  had  had  and  witnessed.  '  There  are  only  three  women,'  she  said, 
'  who  really  have  the  nerve  to  ride  a  line  of  their  own,  and  I  am  one 
of  them.'  Her  baby  of  last  year  has  in  no  way  spoilt  her  nerve,  and 
she  had  seventy  days'  hunting  during  the  past  winter.  Two  of  her 
step-children  were  with  her  at  luncheon,  and  the  governess,  which  gave 
her  a  somewhat  matronly  appearance,  but  she  is  otherwise  unchanged 
from  the  days  of  her  hoyden  maidenhood  —  affectionate,  and  nice,  and 
cleverer  than  any  one  else,  with  a  pretty  colour  in  her  cheeks,  but  very 
thin.  '  I  have  lost  two  stone,'  she  said,  '  since  you  were  with  me  at  the 
Glen.  I  only  weigh  7  stone  6,  but  I  like  to  ride  big  horses.  The  best 
I  ever  had  was  16.2. 

"  yd  June. —  Newbuildings.     I  have  sent  the  following  to  Morley : 

'  As  the  debate  on  the  Soudan  campaign  is  coming  on  I  write  a  line 
to  say  that  I  think  you  will  find  the  action  of  the  Italian  Government 
explainable  on  the  supposition  put  forward  in  my  article  in  the  "  Nine- 
teenth Century  "  of  May,  viz.,  that  the  arrangement  made  with  the 
German  Emperor  was  due  not  to  the  Italian  Government,  but  to  the 
King  of  Italy  personally  through  his  appealing  to  the  Emperor.  The 
Italian  Government,  and  especially  the  Duke  of  Sermoneta,  whom  I 
know  well,  are  or  were  when  they  came  into  office  opposed  altogether 
to  the  Italian  Colonial  policy.  The  Duke's  hobby  (if  one  may  call  it 
so)  is  financial  economy,  and  he  would  have  liked  to  see  the  whole  of 
Erythrya  with  Kassala,  and  even  Massowah,  given  up.  I  am  sure, 
therefore,  that  it  has  been  the  King's  influence  that  has  been  at  work 
overruling  that  of  his  Ministers.  The  Italian  Government's  object  now, 
I  imagine,  is  to  get  their  expenses  in  Erythrya,  or  at  any  rate  at  Kassala, 
paid  for  by  the  Egyptian  Government  or  ours,  on  the  plea  that  they 
have  been  pacifying  the  country  in  Egyptian  interests.  It  is  all  non- 
sense of  course,  but  our  Government,  by  inviting  the  Italians  twelve 
years  ago  to  take  Massowah,  has  put  itself  under  some  obligations  to 
Italy,  which  will  be  made  the  most  of. 


1896]  Death  of  J.  H.  Mlddleton  231 

'  P.S.  I  am  convinced  that  the  whole  of  this  business  was  worked  in 
the  first  instance  by  Royal  personages,  including  our  own,  much  more 
than  by  the  various  F.O's/ 1 

"  8th  June. —  There  is  news  of  a  '  victory  '  in  the  Soudan  at  Ferkeh, 
come,  however,  just  too  late  to  serve  as  an  answer  by  the  Government 
in  Parliament.  Labouchere  rushed  this  debate  on  Friday,  and  it  came 
off  most  successfully,  whereas  the  battle,  which  I  have  little  doubt  was 
fought  by  order  from  Downing  Street,  was  only  fought  on  Sunday. 

"  Coming  up  'to  London  in  the  morning  I  stopped  at  90,  Sloane 
Street,  to  see  Frank  Lascelles.  We  had  some  talk  about  Egypt  and 
the  Soudan,  and  he  admitted  to  me  that  there  had  been  a  conversation 
between  him  and  the  Emperor  William,  such  as  I  allude  to  in  my 
'  Nineteenth  Cen'tury '  article.  But  he  professed  ignorance  as  to  the 
real  reasons  of  the  decision  come  to,  to  advance  to  Dongola,  also  surprise 
at  its  having  been  made. 

"  loth  June. —  Mrs.  Morris  writes  that  Morris  is  less  well,  losing 
weight  daily  and  growing  weaker.  But  the  doctors  will  have  it  that  i't 
is  nervous  exhaustion  only,  and  recommend  a  sea  voyage  and  rest.  I 
do  not  believe  them.  She  is  to  take  rooms  for  him  at  Folkestone  mean- 
while, a  sad  prospect. 

"  13^/1  June. — My  good  friend,  J.  H.  Middleton,  is  dead.2 

"  i$th  June. —  An  inques't  has  been  held  on  poor  Middleton.  The 
jury  have  returned  a  verdict  of  '  death  from  misadventure.'  What  is 
curious  is  that  it  now  appears  that  for  twenty  years  he  has  been  a 
morphia  taker,  and  his  long  illness  has  been  entirely  due  to  that  cause. 
I  have  so  often  'talked  over  with  him  his  friend  Rossetti's  death  from 
chloral,  which  he  used  to  deplore !  He  is  a  great  loss,  or  rather,  one 
should  say,  has  been  a  great  loss,  for  he  has  been  dead  to  the  world 
and  to  his  friends  for  something  like  two  years. 

"  Margot  came  to  dinner  with  George  Wyndham  and  Harry  Cust, 
a  merry  parti  de  quatre,  and  George  stayed  on  talking  with  me  after 
the  others  were  gone. 

"  i6th  June. —  Lunched  with  Philip  Currie  and  his  wife,  just  back 
from  Constantinople.  There  seems  little  chance  now  of  their  being 
transferred  to  Paris.  Afterwards  to  Lady  Galloway's. 

"  24th  June. —  Yesterday  to  Folkestone  to  the  Morrises.  He  is  dis- 
tinctly better,  and  I  hope  may  yet  come  round,  as  the  doctors  declare 
he  will.  He  talked  a  great  deal  about  his  boyhood,  said  he  had  read 
the  whole  of  Scott's  novels  before  he  was  seven,  and  had  gone  through 
the  phase  of  '  Marmion '  and  the  '  Lady  of  the  Lake.'  At  his  school, 

1  Compare  Dr.  Dillon's  "  Eclipse  of  Russia." 

2  John  Henry  Middleton,  director  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 


232  Morris  on  His  School  Life  [1896 

Marlborough,  he  was  neither  high  nor  low  in  his  form,  but  always  last 
in  arithmetic  [in  this  like  me]  ;  hated  Cicero  and  Latin  generally,  but 
anything  in  the  way  of  history  had  attracted  him ;  he  knew  English  his- 
tory better  than  Greek  history,  though  only  'the  latter  was  taught ;  he 
had  learned  nearly  everything  he  knew  of  architecture  and  mediaeval 
things  running  about  the  country  round  Marlborough  as  a  schoolboy. 
The  Morrises  are  at  the  Norfolk  Hotel. 

"  26th  June. —  With  Everard  Fielding  to  see  Tissot's  pictures,  not 
really  good  either  in  drawing  or  in  taste,  and  rather  sham  in  their 
Oriental  realism. 

"  Breakfasted  with  George,  who  was  in  the  highest  of  his  high  spirits, 
having  been  up  at  a  ball  till  five  at  Grosvenor  House,  and  then  out  a't 
nine  to  try  a  new  bicycle  on  Hampstead  Heath,  which  is  to  run  forty 
miles  an  hour.  His  triumphs  are  my  triumphs,  and  I  delight  in  his 
happiness. 

"  ist  July. —  Lunched  with  Harry  Cust,  who  is  starting  in  a  few  days 
for  South  Africa. 

"  loth  July. —  Went  with  George  Wyndham  to  a  dinner  given  by 
Henley  to  the  '  New  Review '  contributors,  a  deadly  dull  affair,  as  all 
men's  dinners  are  —  the  most  interesting  person  I  met  there  \vas  the 
Dane  Brandes,  who  has  the  honour  of  having  invented  Ibsen.  Whibley 
also  was  there,  with  whom  I  talked. 

"  Things  are  going  badly  in  South  Africa  for  the  Chartered  Com- 
pany. The  black  are  in  arms,  and  it  seems  doubtful  whether  they  can 
be  put  down.  Rhodes  is  now  quite  discredited. 

"  nth  July. —  Lunched  with  Lady  Galloway,  and  down  by  the  after- 
noon train  to  Canterbury  to  stay  with  Guy  Wyndham  and  his  wife,  who 
are  quartered  there.  They  have  a  very  beautiful  child,  a  boy  called 
George. 

"  I2th  July. —  With  Guy  to  see  the  Cathedral.  I  am  disappointed 
with  it,  after  all  Morris  told  me  —  that  is,  with  'the  inside,  which  has 
been  scraped  out  of  most  of  its  interest.  Only  the  tombs  are  splendid, 
especially  that  of  the  Black  Prince.  The  tower  outside,  seen  from  the 
cloisters,  is  grand,  and  I  have  arrived  just  in  time  to  see  these  and  the 
chapter  house  unspoiled.  '  If  you  had  come  a  week  later,'  said  the 
verger,  '  you  would  have  found  the  whole  a  mass  of  scaffolding.'  Dean 
Farrar,  who  wants,  Morris  says,  to  be  made  a  Bishop,  is  bent  on  scrap- 
ing and  destroying  all  'that  has  hitherto  escaped,  a  hideous  madness  of 
destruction  nothing  can  prevent. 

"  In  the  evening  back  to  London,  and  dined  with  the  Morrises,  to 
wish  him  good-bye,  as  he  sails  for  Norway  next  week.  The  garden  at 
Kelmscott  House  is  lovely  with  hollyhocks. 

"  i$th  July. —  To  the  Horse  Show  at  the  Crystal  Palace,  where 


1896]  Frederic  Harrison  at  Cricket  233 

Mesaoud  lias  taken  first  Arab  Prize,  Meijliss  second.  This  is  satis- 
factory, though  in  truth  no  great  triumph,  seeing  what  a  poor  competi- 
tion it  was. 

"  17 th  July. —  Went  'to  see  Bowles  and  consult  him  about  Egyptian 
affairs,  and  as  to  bringing  forward  the  case  of  Rhodes'  220  Soudanese, 
which  certainly  ought  to  be  done.  Bowles  has  made  for  himself  by 
his  cleverness  a  certain  position  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  I  would 
rather  he  took  the  case  up  than  the  Radicals. 

"  iSth  July. —  I  have  written  to  'the  '  Times  '  about  Cecil  Rhodes  and 
his  220  Soudanese  recruited  at  Cairo,  and  never  since  heard  of. 

"  In  the  afternoon  I  started  for  Blackdown,  going  by  way  of  Pet- 
worth,  where  I  left  cards,  nobody  being  at  home.  Then  on  by  Lods- 
worth  Common.  This  is,  I  think,  the  easiest,  though  the  longest  road, 
and  may  be  about  twenty-one  miles.  I  found  Harrison  at  cricket  with 
his  boys,  now  grown-up  young  men,  but  they  came  in  presently,  and  I 
played  a  set  of  lawn  tennis  with  the  philosopher,  and  spent  a  pleasant 
evening  discussing  his  creed  of  Humanity  and  mine  of  anti-Humanity. 
It  seems  to  be  pretty  much  the  same  thing  as  far  as  politics  are  con- 
cerned, for  the  principal  wish  of  both  of  us  is  to  see  the  break-up  of, 
the  British  Empire.  He  has  some  right  to  believe  in  Humanity,  as  he 
has  never  had  a  pain  or  ache  or  a  sleepless  night  in  his  life,  and  he  is| 
past  sixty.  Thus  in  half  serious  humour  we  passed  the  evening.  There 
is  nobody  in  the  world  less  like  a  philosopher  or  a  religious  leader  than 
the  good  Harrison. 

"  iqth  July  (Sunday). —  Off  at  five  in  the  morning,  having  said 
good-bye  overnight,  going  by  Lodsworth  and  Ebenhoe,  Kirdford  and 
Wisborough  Green,  an  old-fashioned  bit  of  country  as  any  in  Sussex, 
belonging,  I  think,  all  to  Leconfield.  Long  may  it  so  remain. 

"  yd  Aug. —  Dr.  Jameson  has  been  sentenced  to  fifteen  months  im- 
prisonment, a  sentence  at  once  too  much  and  too  little.  The  Govern- 
ment has  made  him  a  first-class  misdemeanant,  so  as  a  punishment  it  is 
very  little.  At  the  same  time  if  'the  sentence  had  been  carried  out  it 
would  have  been  a  savage  one.  He  ought  to  have  been  hanged  at 
Pretoria.  The  '  Times  '  has  refused  to  publish  my  letter  about  Rhodes' 
Soudanese. 

"  6th  Aug. —  There  has  been  heavy  cholera  up  the  Nile.  Captain 
Fenwick  dead,  and  one  of  'the  young  engineer  officers  I  saw  at  Korosko 
last  November.  He  was  under  twenty-four,  and  was  receiving  £  1,000 
a  year  from  the  Egyptian  Government,  and  thought  himself  a  lucky 
fellow  to  be  there.  They  are  to  advance  on  Dongola  at  the  end  of  the 
month.  What  our  Jingoes  want  is  to  wait  till  the  Egyptian  army  is 
exhausted  by  heat,  hard  fighting,  and  cholera,  and  then  to  send  an 
English  army  to  Khartoum  in  cool  weather  to  reap  the  profits  of  the 


234  Reginald  Wilberforce  [1896 

campaign  in  English  interests.  This  is  being  advoca'ted  unblushingly 
in  the  '  Pall  Mall '  and  elsewhere.  I  wrote  to  expose  the  scandalous 
intention,  but  they  would  not  print  my  letter. 

"loth  Aug. —  Started  on  a  driving  tour  in  the  New  Forest,  stopping 
the  first  day  for  luncheon  at  Lavington  with  Reginald  Wilberforce  and 
his  family.  I  have  known  Reginald  all  my  life,  that  is  to  say,  from  the 
year  1845,  when  we  lived  for  a  while  at  Alverstoke  after  my  father's 
death,  and  when  his  fa'ther,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wilberforce,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  was  Rector  of  the  parish.  There  were  three  boys 
then  —  Reginald,  at  that  time  called  Carton;  Ernest,  now  Bishop  of 
Chichester;  and  Basil,  Chaplain  of  the  House  of  Commons.  They 
were  all  three  as  bad  boys  as  could  be  wished,  and  my  mother  nicknamed 
them  '  the  sons  of  Eli/  Ernest,  with  whom  I  was  in  'the  same  class  at 
school,  an  especially  wicked  boy,  which  is  saying  a  good  deal,  but  now 
just  as  justly  respected,  and  a  Right  Reverend  Father  in  God.  The  only 
good  boy  of  the  family  was  an  older  brother  Herbert,  but  he  had  died 
at  sea,  while  the  wicked  ones  lived  on  to  adorn  the  Church  of  England 
with  'their  virtues.  Thus  is  the  child  father  to  the  man.  I  went  over 
the  little  parish  church  after  luncheon  with  Reginald,  who  is  an  amusing 
talker. 

He  showed  me  the  grave  of  his  Aunt  Caroline,  who  had  been  Cardinal 
Manning's  wife.  It  remains  without  inscription  of  any  kind.  The 
old  Cardinal  visited  it  in  1876  and  talked  of  putting  up  a  stone,  butt  he 
was  probably  perplexed  as  to  the  wording  of  the  inscription.  '  Wife  of 
Cardinal  Manning '  would  have  looked  strange.  Reginald,  however, 
thinks  now  of  doing  this,  and  suggests  '  Wife  of  Henry  Edward,  after- 
wards Cardinal  Manning.'  Reginald  told  me  much  else  that  was  inter- 
esting about  Cardinal  Manning's  visit.  He  had  come  down  for  the 
consecration  of  the  Catholic  church  at  Burton  Park,  and  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  lunch  at  Lavington,  so  they  entertained  him  there,  and  he 
saw  all  the  old  parishioners  and  was  much  affected.  Afterwards  he 
walked  to  the  top  of  'the  down  with  Reginald  and  discoursed  to  him! 
about  his  soul,  exhorting  him  to  conversion  —  thus  for  two  hours. 
Their  last  words  were:  'Think,  my  dear  Reginald,  if  God  should 
require  your  soul  of  you  to-night,  where  should  you  be?'  To  which 
Reginald,  '  Why,  my  dear  Uncle  Henry,  I  should  be  in  the  hands  of 
God.'  As  his  Eminence  was  leaving,  the  parishioners  all  came  to  wish 
him  good-bye,  and  he  blessed  them  each  in  turn.  When  Reginald  had 
put  his  uncle  into  the  carriage,  he  said :  '  And  is  'there  no  blessing,  no 
little  blessing  for  me  ? '  They  never  met  again,  and  '  he  never  cared 
for  me  after  this,'  Reginald  said,  '  though  he  used  to  see  my  wife  and 
children  and  was  always  most  affectionate  to  them.'  He  tells  me  the 
way  Purcell,  his  biographer,  got  hold  of  the  Cardinal's  diaries  and 
letters  was  this.  He  had  had  several  conversations  with  Manning  on 


1896]  Auberon  Herbert  at  Oldhouse  235 

the  subject  of  his  biography,  and  Manning  had  given  him  some  sort  of 
verbal  promise  about  it  and  had  shown  him  where  his  diaries  were  kept, 
and  one  day  he  came  to  the  house  when  the  Cardinal  was  out  and  per- 
suaded the  servant  to  let  him  have  them,  saying  that  the  Cardinal  had 
told  him  to  call  and  take  them  away,  he  knew  where  they  were,  and 
had  authority,  etc.  But  it  was  a  pure  theft  and  Manning  had  begun 
legal  proceedings  for  their  recovery  when  he  died." 

I  went  on  the  same  afternoon  and  camped  on  Goodwood  Down,  and 
on  the  next  day  through  Chichester  to  Fareham  and  Southampton,  and 
camped  again  in  the  evening  at  the  edge  of  the  New  Forest,  the  im- 
mediate object  of  my  journey  being  to  pay  Auberon  Herbert  a  visit  at 
Oldhouse.  Of  this  I  write: 

"  I2th  Aug. —  Oldhouse  lies  pretty  well  in  the  heart  of  the  Forest. 
One  descends  to  it  from  the  high  road  by  a  grass  track  of  a  mile  and  a 
half.  It  is  a  freehold  of  half-a-dozen  acres,  recently  purchased  by 
Auberon  of  its  owner,  and  there  he  has  made  his  hermitage.  The  old 
cottage  he  has  pulled  down  and  in  its  place  has  built  up  a  number  of 
cheap  buildings  of  brick  and  wood  devoid  of  architecture.  Fortunately 
they  lie  in  a  hollow  and  so  are  invisible  un'cil  one  is  close  by.  Auberon 
has  done  so  much  for  the  Forest,  and  fought  so  many  battles  to  preserve 
it  from  the  Crown  officers,  that  he  must  be  forgiven  this  one  lapse.  I 
found  him  with  Stafford  Howard,  the  Crown  Commissioner,  and  Es- 
dale,  a  local  squire  and  verderer  of  the  Forest,  Auberon's  ally  in  the 
Forest  battle.  I  had  much  talk  with  them  about  this.  The  chief  diffi- 
culty is  what  to  do  with  the  great  fir  enclosures,  the  firs  ought  to  be  cut 
down,  but  there  is  nobody  to  buy  them,  and  an  ugly  growth  of  them  is 
creeping  over  the  open  spaces,  self-sown.  It  ought  to  be  put  a  stop  to, 
or  in  fifty  years'  time  the  Forest  will  be  like  Woking  cemetery. 

"  Auberon  is  much  aged  since  I  saw  him  last,  and  more  flighty  than 
he  used  to  be.  He  is  beset  with  a  double  mania,  a  craving  for  fresh  air 
and  in  contradiction  a  terror  of  draughts,  so  that  he  is  always  shifting 
from  in  to  out  of  doors  and  putting  on  or  taking  off  extra  clothing. 
His  two  children,  Bron  and  Nan,  wait  on  him  with  angelic  devotion. 
They  do  all  the  work  of  the  house.  When  I  arrived  Nan  was  in  the 
kftchen  up  to  her  elbows  in  flour,  making  bcead.  She  is  a  great  strong 
girl  of  sixteen,  the  picture  of  health,  with  limbs  like  a  boy's,  great 
honest  grey  eyes,  good  complexion,  and  good  teeth.  Auberon  and  I 
have  talked  a  great  deal  on  politics,  Eastern  and  Western,  he,  as  his 
way  is,  asking  innumerable  questions.  We  agree  on  most  subjects,  but 
he  is  too  'tender  to  his  countrymen's  sins,  excusing  them  and  comparing 
them  favourably  with  the  French.  He  has  become  an  entire  vegetarian, 
as  is  his  daughter,  and  for  the  most  part  his  son.  Their  way  of  life  is 
the  most  uncomfortable  imaginable.  They  have  no  fixed  hours  for 
meals,  or  for  getting  up  in  the  morning,  or  for  going  to  bed.  The  first 


236  His  Children,  Bron  and  Nan  [1896 

regular  meal  is  said  to  be  at  half-past  two  in  the  afternoon,  and  there 
is  another  at  twilight  in  the  evening,  but  they  do  not  sit  down  to  either 
meal.  Auberon  sits  in  a  summer  house  during  part  of  his  meal,  while 
the  children  run  in  and  out,  and  he  has  constantly  to  ge't  up  to  arrange 
and  re-arrange  his  clothing,  which  is  of  Shetland  wool  shawls  and 
jerseys,  and  the  children  are  called  to  put  up  and  take  down  wooden 
screens  on  this  side  and  that  as  the  wind  may  seem  to  blow  or  not  to 
blow.  Nan,  with  inexhaustible  patience,  humours  and  serves  her  fa- 
ther, and  Bron  is  almost  equally  good  to  him.  This  is  the  best  tribute 
that  can  be  paid  to  Auberon's  system  of  education,  but  it  is  clear  there 
must  be  a  breaking  point  somewhere.  I  don't  know  which  child  to  ad- 
mire the  most,  the  boy  or  the  girl. 

"  i$th  Aug. —  Spent  the  morning  alone  writing,  for  Auberon  has  his 
occupations.  He  is  a  wonderful  man,  with  a  certain  ethereal  beauty 
of  the  Shelley  kind,  which  has  increased  with  years.  His  theories  are, 
I  believe,  essentially  true,  and  he  is  true  to  them  in  practice,  but  without 
his  children  it  would  be  a  desolate,  impossible  life.  He  took  me  for 
a  walk  at  luncheon  time,  discoursing  as  he  went,  his  daughter  following, 
us,  all  ears  for  our  talk.  She  is  very  nice  and  pleasant,  as  girls 
of  sixteen  always  are,  still  wearing  short  petticoats,  and  with 
hair  cut  short,  enthusiastic  at  'the  thought  of  going,  perhaps  this  winter, 
to  Egypt. 

"  I4th  Aug. —  On  by  Ringwood  and  up  the  Avon  valley  to  Salisbury, 
where  we  baited  at  the  White  Hart,  an  excellent  inn,  but  vitiated  by  a 
German  waiter.  I  went  over  the  Cathedral,  which  has  been  scraped 
inside  and  garnished  from  end  to  end.  In  another  hundred  years  it 
may  perhaps  tone  down  again  to  beauty,  but  at  present  the  black  pillar 
stems,  newly  polished,  have  the  effect  of  so  many  tall  stove  pipes.  It 
was  infinitely  finer  under  the  old  whitewash,  but  the  deans  will  have' 
their  way.  Then  on  to  Wilton  and  George  Pembroke's  grave.  The 
house  is  shut  up,  as  Sidney  finds  himself  too  poor  to  live  in  it,  and  the 
days  of  their  joyous  youth  are  a  vanished  dream.  Then  on  across  the 
Down  through  Groveley  Wood,  the  biggest  mere  wood  in  England, 
where  I  remember  riding  with  Pembroke  and  his  brothers  and  sisters 
thirty  years  ago,  when  they  were  children,  playing  a  game  of  Puss  in 
the  Corner,  with  wild  galloping  down  the  rides.  There  at  nightfall  I 
camped. 

"  i^th  Aug. —  Another  short  morning's  drive  brought  us  to  Stockton 
where  I  spent  the  Sunday  with  my  cousins  Pamela  and  Eddy  Tennant. 

"  George  has  been  appointed  to  the  South  African  Committee,  and  is 
to  sail  for  the  Cape  to-day." 

From  Stockton  I  went  on  through  Warminster  and  Longleat  Park 
to  Mells.  "  Longleat  is  very  fine  approached  from  this  side,  but  the 
house  disappointed  me.  It  is  very  perfect,  too  perfect,  and,  large  as  it 


1896]  Longleat,  Metis  and  Wells  237 

is,  it  is  lost  in  the  size  of  the  park.  What  makes  it  look  dull  is  the  uni- 
form plate-glass  which  has  been  put  in  every  window.  It  is  astonish- 
ing how  this  destroys  the  beauty  of  old  buildings.  It  is  as  though  the 
eyes  in  a  beautiful  face  had  been  put  out  and  replaced  with  spectacles. 
I  prefer  Mells,  where  I  now  am,  a  really  fascinating  little  place,  a 
comfortable  eighteenth-century  house,  remote  and  shut  in,  which  gives 
a  sense  of  immemorial  quiet  screened  from  the  world's  view.  I  arrived 
late  at  half -past  seven,  but  they  had  not  yet  gone  to  dress  for  dinner, 
and  presently  out  rushed  the  whole  family.  Mrs.  Homer,  with  her 
children,  very  pretty  ones,  and  Godfrey  Webb,  who  is  staying  there, 
and  Horner,  who  went  out  to  help  me  choose  a  camping  place,  and 
invited  me  in  to  dinner.  I  was  not  expected,  but  travelling  in  this 
way  calls  out  the  latent  hospitality  of  the  countryside  almost  as  much 
as  if  one  were  in  the  East,  and  Horner  gave  himself  endless  trouble 
about  my  road  to  Wells  next  morning. 

"  \jth  Aug. —  My  day's  drive  to-day  was  along  the  Mendlip  Hills 
to  Wells,  where  I  baited  the  horses  at  the  Swan  Inn,  near  the  Cathe- 
dral. Wells  Cathedral  is  the  most  perfect  in  England.  The  inside  has 
been  scraped,  but  not  much  spoiled,  while  the  outside  is  quite  intact. 
Its  surroundings  are  unique  —  the  Bishop's  palace,  the  famous  wells 
in  the  Episcopal  garden,  and  the  moat.  While  in  the  Cathedral  I 
got  shut  in  behind  the  choir,  and  sat  on  a  stone  bench  listening,  not 
unedified,  to  the  chaunting  of  a  service.  It  is  an  interesting  thing  to 
have  witnessed,  as  I  have,  from  its  beginning,  the  revival  of  the 
Church  of  England,  which  fifty  years  ago  seemed  almost  dead.  In 
those  days  a  Cathedral  like  this  was  left  almost  without  ceremonial  from 
Sunday  to  Sunday,  and  the  officiating  canon,  if  he  read  the  church 
service  to  his  clerk,  would  begin  with  '  Dearly  beloved  brother,'  for 
want  of  other  congregation.  Now  all  is  elaborately  ordered,  yet  I 
confess  I  like  the  old  godless  way  best,  it  was  more  honest  and  marked 
the  fact,  which  was  a  fact,  that  the  continuity  of  church  worship  had 
been  broken  at  the  Reformation.  Now  all  is  sham  medievalism,  sham 
seventeenth  century,  sham  eighteenth  century.  We  shall  get  back  pres- 
ently, I  hope,  to  our  pews  on  eclectic  principles,  and  a  new  Georgian 
era  of  ecclesiastical  wigs  and  gowns.  Then  I  ran  down  by  train  to 
Glastonbury  and  back,  and  camped  for  the  night  in  a  beautiful  coombe 
belonging  to  a  Mr.  Tudway,  a  local  banker  to  whom  Horner  had  given 
me  a  letter,  dining  with  him  in  a  beautiful  Georgian  house  belonging  to 
his  family  since  1760.  Here  my  driving  journey  ended,  for  we  were 
overtaken  with  heavy  rains. 

"  soth  Aug. —  We  have  had  three  public  events  during  the  week, 
first  Cecil  Rhodes  has  patched  up  a  peace  with  the  Matabeles,  heralded 
in  all  the  daily  papers  as  an  heroic  act  of  courage,  because  he  went 
personally  to  the  Matabele  camp  to  treat.  Secondly,  our  gallant  fleet 


238  Bombardment  of  Zanzibar  [1896 

has  bombarded  Zanzibar.  The  Sultan  had  died  suddenly,  and  Khalid, 
one  of  his  relations,  son  of  the  former  Sultan  Bargash,  had  seized  the 
throne  and  got  the  native  soldiery  to  join  him.  These  held  the  palace 
against  the  fleet,  which  bombarded  them  from  close  quarters,  killed 
five  hundred  of  them,  and  burnt  out  the  remainder.  Our  papers  are 
again  exultant,  and  raise  a  cry  for  annexation  on  the  plea  for  abolishing 
slavery  in  Zanzibar.  Yet  I  remember  fifteen  years  ago  Sultan  Bar- 
gash  applying  to  me  to  get  the  Indian  Government  to  allow  him  coolie 
labour  as  a  substitute  for  the  slaves.  Zanzibar  was  a  model  Arab 
Sta'te,  a  hundred  times  more  liberal  in  its  ideas  than  the  Government 
of  India,  which  would  not  hear  of  helping  the  Sultan.  I  know  this, 
having  brought  the  case  before  Lytton.  Thirdly,  there  has  been  a 
new  great  slaying  of  Armenians  at  Constantinople,  the  companion  of 
what  took  place  last  year,  but  on  a  larger  scale.  It  was  begun,  as  in  the 
first  instance,  by  the  Armenian  Committee,  which  seized  the  Ottoman 
bank  and  threw  bombs  into  the  street,  their  object  being  to  force  on  a 
crisis.  To  this  the  Moslems  retorted  with  a  massacre. 

"  2nd  Sept. —  The  Nile  expedition  has  been  stopped  by  floods,  great 
seyls  from  the  hills,  which  have  swept  away  the  new  railway  just  as 
they  have  finished  it.  The  talk  is  now  of  having  hardly  time  to  get  to 
Dongola  before  the  river  goes  down.  If  the  expedition  fails,  all  I  have 
said  about  the  abdication  of  Providence  has  been  blasphemy.  The 
good  Egyptian  troops  have  been  worn  out  by  hard  work  in  a  thankless 
labour.  They  are  said  now  to  be  '  tired.'  Broadwood  wrote  me  this 
some  time  ago. 

"  yd  Sept. —  To  Wotton  to  dine  and  sleep.  The  good  old  Evelyn 
is  packing  up  his  trunks  to  go  on  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem.  Next  day 
to  London  to  see  Morris,  whom  the  doctors  now  declare  to  be  in  a 
pulmonary  consumption.  Mrs.  de  Morgan  was  there  and  Cockerell, 
and  while  I  was  sitting  with  them  in  came  Madeline  Wyndham,  beauti- 
ful in  her  old  age.  She  took  me  away  with  her  to  see  some  enamel 
work  she  is  learning  to  do  at  the  studio  of  one  Fisher,  and  I  was 
shown  all  the  process  of  mixing  the  colours,  ground  glass,  with  water, 
arranging  them  on  a  silver  plate  and  burning  them  on  a  small  oven. 
Fisher  has  done  a  beautiful  triptych  of  a  Crucifixion,  and  a  very  pretty 
classic  bit  called  '  Love's  Chase,'  but  the  best  thing  there  was  one  of 
Madeline's  own,  two  peacocks. 

"  Sth  Sept. —  Started  on  a  series  of  visits  to  Scotland,  and,  on  my 
way  north,  I  find  the  following: 

"  I2th  Sept. —  Met  Lord  Loch  in  the  train,  and  had  much  interest- 
ing talk  with  him  on  South  African  affairs  and  the  intrigues  of  Ger- 
many. He  told  me  that  when  he  was  at  Pretoria  some  of  the  Boers 
explained  these  to  him.  Also  that  the  opposition  of  Germany  in  South 
Africa  dated  from  1886,  when  Bismarck  began  it,  as  against  the  Em- 


1896]  Gladstone  on  Armenia  239 

press  Frederick.  We  also  discussed  the  possible  deposition  of  the  Sul- 
tan. He  thought  this  could  only  be  done  by  Russia,  as  our  fleet  could 
not  get  through  the  Dardanelles  v,ithout  heavy  loss." 

While  in  one  of  the  country  houses  I  found  in  an  anonymous  book, 
dated  1722,  the  following  admirable  epitaph  of  a  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
which  I  cannot  help  transcribing  here,  so  suitable  is  it  for  the  agnosti- 
cisms of  our  day. 

"  Pro  rege  saepe,  pro  Republica  semper. 
Dubius  sed  non  improbus  vixi. 

Incertus  morior  sed  inturbatus. 
Humanum  est  errare  et  nescire. 
Christum  adveneror.     Deo  confido, 
Omnipotent!  benevolentissimo. 
Ens  entium,  miserere  mei." 

Often  for  the  King,  always  for  the  Commonweal. 

Doubting  but  not  wickedly  have  I  lived. 

I  die  uncertain  but  unperturbed. 
It  is  human  to  err  and  not  to  know. 
I  venerate  Christ.     I  trust  in  God 

The  omnipotent  the  most  kind 
Being  of  beings,  have  pity  on  me ! 

Back  to  London,  where  we  found  "  great  preparations  being  made 
for  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Russia,  who  are  being  feted  in  the 
middle  of  an  agitation  against  Russian  policy  at  Constantinople.  All 
our  English  world  has  gone  mad  with  self -righteousness. 

"  26th  Sept. —  Gladstone  has  fired  off  his  powder  against  the  Sultan 
at  Liverpool,  but  there  was  no  shot  in  his  Armenian  gun.  All  he  can 
think  of  as  a  means  of  coercion  at  Constantinople  is  to  break  off  diplo- 
matic relations,  summon  the  Sultan  to  take  action  of  some  kind  and 
go  no  further.  It  is  too  foolish.  All  the  time  he  was  in  office  the  old 
man  lifted  not  so  much  as  a  finger  for  the  Armenians,  and  now  that 
he  cannot  help  them  he  would  play  their  champion  against  Abdul 
Hamid,  who  owes  the  strength  of  his  position  mainly  to  English  di- 
plomacy, as  he  should  remember.  In  1882  Gladstone  called  on  Abdul 
Hamid  to  help  him  to  put  down  liberty  in  Egypt  by  proclaiming  Arabi 
a  rebel  and,  as  he  explained  to  an  Indian  Mohammedan  deputation  at 
the  time  of  Tel-el-Kebir,  sent  troops  to  Egypt  '  to  establish  the  Sultan's 
rights  there.'  In  all  this  he  made  the  Sultan  his  accomplice  against 
the  liberal  Mohammedan  party,  and  by  doing  so  set  Islamic  patriotism 
on  reactionary  lines  and  gave  the  Sultan  his  present  triumph  over  his 
reforming  enemies.  If  liberal  Islam  is  powerless  to-day  in  the  Sultan's 
grasp  it  is  distinctly  Gladstone  who  has  made  it  so,  yet  now  he  comes 


240  Morris'  Death  [1896 

forward  shocked  at  the  result.  I  should  like  to  write  these  things,  but 
who  would  listen  ? 

"  2&th  Sept. —  Dined  with  the  Morrises.  He  came  in  like  a  man 
risen  from  the  grave,  and  sat  a  few  minutes  at  the  table,  but  seemed 
dazed  and  unable  to  follow  the  conversation.  Miss  de  Morgan  was 
there,  and  his  wife  waiting  on  him,  and  a  voung  man  who  had  chari- 
tably come  in  to  sit  up  with  him  at  night.  He  seemed  absorbed  in  his 
misery. 

"4th  Oct.  (Sunday'). —  Morris  is  dead.  I  got  a  letter  telling  it 
from  Lady  Burne-Jones  this  morning.  She  says,  '  Our  dear  friend 
Morris  died  at  twenty  minutes  past  eleven  this  morning,  as  quietly  as 
ever  a  babe  went  'to  sleep  in  its  mother's  arms.' 

"  It  has  come  sooner  than  I  expected,  though  I  knew  his  case  was 
hopeless.  It  is  better  as  it  is.  He  is  the  most  wonderful  man  I  have 
known,  unique  in  this,  that  he  had  no  thought  for  anything  or  person, 
including  himself,  but  only  for  the  work  he  had  in  hand.  He  was  no't 
selfish  in  the  sense  of  seeking  his  own  advantage  or  pleasure  or  com- 
fort, but  he  was  too  absorbed  in  his  own  thoughts  to  be  either  openly 
affectionate  or  actively  kind.  I  suppose  he  had  a  real  affection  for 
Burne-Jones,  they  saw  each  other  constantly  and  spent  their  Sunday 
mornings,  always  together,  and  I  have  seen  him  tender  to  his  daughter 
Jenny  and  nice  with  her  and  with  his  wife,  but  I  doubt  if  he  thought 
of  them  much  when  he  did  not  see  them,  and  his  life  was  not  arranged 
in  reference  to  them.  To  the  rest  of  the  world  he  seemed  quite  indif- 
ferent, and  he  never,  I  am  sure,  returned  the  affection  I  gave  him.  He 
liked  to  talk  to  me  because  I  knew  how  to  talk  to  him,  and  our  fence  of 
words  furbished  his  wit,  but  I  doubt  if  he  would  have  crossed  'the 
street  to  speak  to  me.  He  was  generous  and  open-handed  in  his  deal- 
ings, and  I  fancy  did  many  kindnesses  in  a  money  way  for  people  in 
distress,  but  he  fashed  himself  for  no  man  and  no  woman.  The  truth 
is  he  would  not  give  an  hour  of  his  time  to  anyone,  he  held  it  to  be  too 
valuable.  Thus,  while  all  the  world  admired  and  respected  him,  I  doubt 
whether  he  had  many  friends ;  they  got  too  little  in  return  to  continue 
their  affection.  I  should  say  half-a-dozen  were  all  the  friends  he 
had.  I  do  not  doubt  myself  among  that  number,  intimate  as  I  was 
with  him  and  much  as  I  loved  him.  It  will  be  a  great  grief  for  Jenny, 
a  great  break-up  for  Janey,  and  a  great  loss  for  the  world  at  large,  for 
he  was  really  our  greatest  man. 

"  $th  Oct. —  I  came  up  to  London  to  see  if  I  could  be  of  any  use 
at  Kelmscott  House,  and  first  I  called  on  Burne-Jones  and  had  lunch- 
eon with  him  and  his  son.  He  said  that  his  interest  in  life  had  come 
to  an  end  with  Morris,  as  all  their  ideas  and  plans  and  work  had  been 
together  all  their  lives.  Phil,  with  whom  I  had  a  private  talk,  gave  me 
curiously  enough  the  exact  same  impression  of  Morris  as  that  which 


1896]  Phil  Burne- Jones  on  Morris  241 

I  wrcfte  in  this  diary  yesterday.  His  impersonality,  his  lack  of  per- 
sonal affection  for  anyone  except,  perhaps,  for  his,  Phil's,  father.  Then 
I  went  on  to  Hammersmith.  The  coffin,  a  very  plain  box,  lay  in  the 
little  room  downstairs,  with  a  beautiful  old  embroidered  cloth  over  it 
and  a  small  wreath  of  leaves  and  sad-coloured  flowers.  It  was  the 
room  which  was  his  bedroom,  and  where  he  died,  with  his  best  and 
favourite  books  around  him,  The  morning  after  the  day  I  dined  with 
him,  Tuesday,  was  a  fine  one  and  he  was  taken  out  for  an  airing  in  his 
chair,  and  he  enjoyed  it  thoroughly  and  said  he  felt  well.  On  coming  in 
he  insisted  on  going  upstairs,  but  the  exertion  was  too  much ;  he  broke 
a  blood  vessel  and  lay  after  that  for  the  most  part  insensible  till  he  died 
on  Saturday. 

"  8th  Oct. —  Rosebery  has  resigned  his  leadership  of  the  Liberal 
party.  I  wrote  at  once  to  Loulou  Harcourt  to  congratulate  his  father. 

"  i$th  Oct. —  I  am  leaving  home  this  afternoon  for  Egypt,  stopping 
as  usual  for  three  nights  at  Gros  Bois  on  my  way.  Jusserand  and  his 
wife  'there,  and  Giovanni  Borghese  and  young  Norton,  Mrs.  Norton's 
grandson,  now  at  the  Paris  Embassy." 


CHAPTER  XII 

SIWAH 

"  24th  Oct.  1896.— 

"  I  have  been  reading  Slatin's  '  Fire  and  Sword  in  the  Soudan/  a 
sensational  volume  written  with  a  purpose,  the  style  obviously  Win- 
gate's,  as  it  is  identical  with  his  '  Ohrwalder '  book.  Slatin  is  a  mean 
wretch  to  have  published  ft,  and  the  Mahdi  made  a  mistake  in  not 
cutting  off  his  head  at  once  when  he  surrendered,  and  sending  him 
straight  to  Paradise.  His  professions  of  loyalty  to  the  Khedive  and 
to  our  gracious  Queen  are  fulsome,  and  those  of  disloyalty  to  the 
people  whose  religion  he  adopted  to  save  his  miserable  life,  disgusting. 
Gordon's  judgment  of  him  is  justified  when  he  distrusted  him  as  a 
traitor  and  despised  him  as  a  renegade,  for  he  shows  himself  here 
doubly  both. 

"  With  regard  to  the  Mahdi,  Slatin  declares  him  to  have  been  a 
hypocrite  and  an  impostor,  but  his  opinion  rests  upon  no  evidence 
given  and  seems  to  me  wholly  improbable.  Slatin  only  saw  him  a 
few  times  and  was  never  at  all  in  his  confidence,  and  on  the  few  oc- 
casions that  'the  Mahdi  spoke  to  him  he  seems  to  have  done  so  kindly 
and  reasonably.  Slatin  is  himself  a  witness  that  the  whole  of  the 
Mahdi's  followers  believed  in  him  to  the  very  end,  and  it  is  quite 
incredible  that  they  should  have  done  so  if,  while  preaching  self- 
denial  to  others,  he  had  really  been  the  monster  of  depravity  Slatin 
affirms  him  to  have  been  in  his  private  life.  Such  a  discrepancy  could 
not  have  been  hidden  from  the  Soudanese  world  and  could  not  but  have 
destroyed  the  popular  belief  in  him.  With  regard  to  the  Khalifa 
Abdullah  the  position  is  different,  as  Slatin  was  in'timate  with  him 
and  Abdullah  had  no  pretensions  to  high  sanctity,  nor  did  his  fol- 
lowers believe  in  him  as  a  saint.  Slatin  talks  about  his  own  military 
honour,  but  how  does  the  case  stand?  When  he  surrendered  to  the 
Mahdi  he  was  put  in  reality  on  parole,  that  is  to  say,  he  promised  and 
swore  fidelity  to  the  Mahdi,  in  return  for  which  he  was  allowed  his 
freedom  and  an  honourable  position  in  the  Mahdi's  army.  He  used 
this  position  to  betray  the  Mahdi  by  writing  letters  to  Gordon  in  a 
sense  contrary  to  his  orders.  For  his  treachery  he  might  justly  have 
been  shot,  but  after  a  short  imprisonment,  and  on  his  giving  a  new 

242 


1896]  Abbas  on  the  Dongola  Campaign  243 

parole,  he  was  reinstated  only  to  escape  and  betray  again.  We  shall  see 
this  honourable  soldier  made  a  K.C.B.  [And  so  he  was]. 

"  2?th  Oct. —  Arrived  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  to-day,  the  garden  very 
green  and  beautiful.  The  Nile  is  a't  its  full,  and  everything  is  drink- 
ing deeply  in  the  hot  sun.  I  am  surprised,  as  I  am  every  year  surprised, 
at  the  quality  of  the  loveliness,  the  vivid  colours,  the  depths  of  shade, 
the  brilliancy  of  the  light.  It  is  an  absurdity  to  waste  one's  life  else- 
where. I  am  too  idle  to  write,  I  can  only  enjoy. 

"<)th  Nov. —  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu  called  to-day,  and  we  had 
a  long  talk  about  the  Khedive.  Abdu  is  dissatisfied  with  certain  things 
His  Highness  has  done,  and  especially  with  a  dispute  about  land  he 
has  had  with  Hassan  Musa  el  Akkad.  He  calls  the  Khedive's  con- 
duct puerile,  which  it  doubtless  is.  He  says  that  his  marriage  was  en- 
tirely his  mother's  doing.  When  Abbas  first  came  back  from  Europe, 
he  wished  to  have  a  bachelor's  establishment  without  women,  but  his 
mother  forced  half-a-dozen  slaves  on  him,  and  eventually  he  chose 
the  one  he  has  married.  He  has  had  a  new  disappointment  this  year 
in  the  birth  of  a  second  daughter  instead  of  a  son. 

"  igth  Nov. —  To  Cairo  to  see  the  Khedive.  He  received  me  in  the 
same  friendly  way  as  always,  and  talked,  as  always,  without  reserve. 
He  asked  me  if  I  had  been  to  Constantinople,  and  we  discussed  the 
situation  there  and  the  probability  of  European  intervention,  which 
musft  come  with  the  Sultan's  increasing  financial  difficulties.  The 
power  of  the  Porte  will  then  be  re-established  and  a  financial  control 
set  up. 

"  He  talked  much  about  Dongola  and  the  unfairness  that  had  been 
exercised  towards  his  own  Egyptian  soldiers  as  contrasted  with  the 
English  soldiers,  only  one  baggage  camel  was  allowed  to  every  five 
Egyptian  officers,  while  Kitchener  took  as  many  as  150  camels  for 
himself  and  his  mess.  The  Egyptian  soldiers  had  to  do  all  the  work, 
the  English  got  all  the  credit.  As  to  the  English  battalion  it  did  next 
to  no  work,  and  did  not  even  march  on  foot,  but  was  sent  by  rail 
while  all  the  Egyptians  marched.  The  fellah  soldiers,  too,  had  never  a 
hot  meal  given  them,  nor  more  than  ten  hours  rest  in  the  twenty-four. 
They  had  insufficient  water,  and  only  two  loaves  instead  of  the  three 
they  gave  them  at  Cairo,  the  third  loaf  'they  could  have,  but  they  must 
pay  for  it.  I  asked  him  how  much  the  expedition  had  cost.  He  said 
first  a  half  million  taken  from  the  Caisse,  then  several  hundred  thou- 
sands taken  for  the  railway.  He  did  not  know  when  the  expedition 
would  be  renewed,  but  not  till  next  autumn. 

"  He  also  told  me  the  whole  history  of  Rhodes  and  the  Soudanese 
he  took  from  Cairo.  He,  the  Khedive,  had  seen  them  himself  being 
embarked  for  Suez.  There  were  200  of  then,  men  got  together  by 
Kitchener,  and  made  over  to  Rhodes  in  a  lump.  Kitchener  had  told 


244  Rhodes  Exports  Negroes  from  Egypt  [1896 

him  they  were  not  good  enough  for  service  in  the  Egyptian  army. 
They  had  gone  with  Cromer's  consent  but  without  his,  the  Khedive's, 
permission.  Their  exportation  was  quite  illegal.  Cromer  had  apolo- 
gized for  the  informality  of  not  asking  permission.  The  Khedive  knew 
nothing  of  what  had  become  of  the  men,  except  that  he  had  been  told 
they  had  been  disembarked  at  Mombaza.  Rhodes  gave  the  men  a 
month's  pay  in  advance  and  took  their  women  and  children  with  them. 
The  women  were  given  a  shilling  each  as  bakshish.  '  But  this  is  not 
all.  A  little  before  this  happened  a  negro  came  to  me  and  told  me  of 
a  case  of  slave  dealing,  of  a  man  and  woman  who  had  been  bought 
by  the  sons  of  Prince  Ibrahim  for  their  harem.  To  prevent  a  scandal 
I  told  the  young  men  they  must  get  rid  of  them.  Whereupon  they 
went  to  Lord  Cromer  and  threw  themselves  at  his  feet  and  begged 
forgiveness.  Cromer  then  took  the  two  slaves  and  married  the  woman 
to  one  of  the  soldiers  who  was  given  to  Rhodes,  and  the  man  was  sent 
with  the  rest  to  Suez;.  Also  they  took  one  of  my  Shaggias  (soldiers  of 
his  bodyguard)  who  went  away  taking  my  uniform  with  him,  but  I 
had  him  stopped  and  brought  back.' 

"  We  stayed  talking  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  he  made  me 
a  number  of  pretty  speeches  when  I  went  away.  He  was  rather  inquisi- 
tive about  a  journey  I  had  arranged  to  Siwah,  which  he  had  heard  of 
and  seemed  anxious  to  dissuade  me  from.  I  suppose  he  had  heard 
of  it  from  his  camel  men.  I  also  called  on  Riaz  and  Tigrane. 

"  2gth  Nov. —  A  long  letter  from  George  Wyndham  from  South 
Africa  where  he  has  been  with  Rhodes  getting  up  a  case  for  him  for  the 
Parliamentary  Committee.  His  letter  is  an  interesting  one  written 
at  intervals  of  a  long  ride  from  Buluwayo  to  the  Transvaal  frontier. 
The  work  done  in  South  Africa  is  sickening,  and  seems  likely  to  lead  to 
the  destruction  of  the  whole  black  race  south  of  the  tropics.  The 
Rinderpest  has  destroyed  all  wild  animals,  and  is  destroying  their  cat- 
tle. The  '  rebels '  are  being  blown  up  by  dynamite  in  the  caves  of 
the  Matoppo  hills,  and  their  chiefs  shot  in  cold  blood,  and  while  all  this 
is  going  on  we  are  having  meetings  the  whole  of  England  over  to 
denounce  the  Sultan  because  he  is  destroying  the  Armenians.  Was 
there  ever  a  nation  like  ours?  Never,  since  the  world  began. 

"  I  had  a  long  talk  with  Mohammed  Abdu  a  few  days  since.  He 
has  read  my  '  Nineteenth  Century '  article  about  Armenia,  and  ap- 
proves all  I  have  said  against  Abdul  Hamid.  He  looks  upon  him  as 
mad  and  to  be  deposed.  He  gave  me  an  interesting  account  of  his 
own  persecution  at  the  Azhar  by  the  old-fashioned  Sheykhs  of  the 
Ulema  in  the  days  of  Ismail,  especially  by  Sheykh  Aleysh.  He  had, 
he  says,  at  one  time,  as  many  as  4,000  students  who  attended  his  lec- 
tures, but  the  Conservative  opposition  was  too  strong  for  him.  Still 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  liberty  of  thought  and  speech  at  Cairo  even 


1896]  Ali  Pasha  Sherifs  Stud  245 

in  those  days,  it  never  was  as  bad  here  as  it  is  now  at  Constantinople, 
but  all  the  old-fashioned  ideas  of  liberty  and  humanity  are  fast  dis- 
appearing from  the  world.  Abdu  and  I  find  ourselves  almost  alone 
in  our  views.  The  best  effect  my  article  has  had  in  England  has 
been  to  make  John  Morley  pronounce  himself  in  favour  of  coming  to 
terms  about  evacuating  Egypt.  His  speech  on  this  head  is  a  para- 
phrase of  my  article. 

"  Mrs.  Morris  and  her  daughter  May  have  been  staying  with  us 
here  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  for  the  last  ten  days. 

"  i$th  Dec. —  We  went  in  yesterday  to  Cairo  to  see  Ali  Pasha 
Sherif's  horses  which,  with  the  rest  of  his  property,  are  to  be  sold  by 
auction  on  Thursday.  We  shall  probably  bid  for  three  or  four  of  the 
brood  mares,  and  so  save  a  remnant  from  extinction,  sold  to  us  pri- 
vately before  the  auction. 

"  ijth  Dec. —  The  luck  of  the  thing  is  that  Ali  Pasha's  affairs,  being 
in  the  hands  of  trustees,  it  is  to  spite  them  that  'the  old  man  is  willing 
to  sell  privately  to  us.  He  insists  on  his  right  to  dispose  of  them  as 
he  pleases.  When  he  had  received  our  cheque  he  sent  the  mares  off 
in  the  dark  at  four  in  the  morning.  Now  there  has  been  a  row  be- 
tween the  old  man  and  the  trustees.  Ali  Pasha  declares  that  not  an- 
other horse  shall  go  out  of  the  stable  without  his  permission.  Mutlak, 
who  arranged  the  whole  thing  for  us,  found  him  this  morning  sitting 
at  his  window  which  overlooks  the  yard  of  his  palace  and  the  stables, 
with  a  Winchester  rifle  loaded  at  his  side,  with  which  he  swears  he 
will  shoot  anyone  who  ventures  to  come  near  these.  The  old  man 
is  considered  mad  by  his  relations,  and  his  sons  have  had  him  inter- 
dicted and  his  affairs  placed  in  Sabit  Pasha's  hands  as  trustee,  but 
we  have  got  the  mares  and  they  are  beautiful.  The  mere  name  of 
having  purchased  them  will  be  worth  much  to  our  stud,  for  they  are 
celebrated  the  whole  East  over,  and  I  don't  think  the  trustees  will  care 
really  to  dispute  our  purchase.  Abdu  tells  me  that  according  to  the 
terms  of  the  interdiction,  Ali  Pasha  may  do  what  he  likes  with  his 
moveable  property,  and  Carton  de  Wiart,  the  leading  lawyer  here 
whom  I  have  consulted,  gives  me  a  curious  account  of  the  reason  of 
the  interdiction.  It  was  a  little  political  job  of  which  there  are  so 
many  done  at  Cairo.  When  Ali  Sherif,  two  years  ago,  was  involved 
in  the  slave  trade  prosecution,  feeling  ran  high  between  the  Khedive 
and  Cromer  about  it,  for  in  reality  our  people  took  advantage  of  the 
old  man's  age  and  infirmities  to  force  on  him  an  apology  which  he 
might  perfectly  well  have  refused,  for  he  had  done  nothing  illegal. 
Cromer,  seeing  he  had  been  in  the  wrong,  agreed  therefore  to  the 
following  arrangement  by  mutual  concession.  On  his  side  he  con- 
sented to  the  dismissal  of  Shafer,  the  anti  slave-trade  official  who  had 
brought  the  action  against  Ali  Sherif;  and  the  Khedive  on  his  side 


246  Princess  Nasli  on  the  Sultan  [1896 

agreed  to  Ali  Sherif's  being  interdicted  as  incapable  of  managing  his 
affairs.  But  Ali  Sherif  was  not  really  mad,  only  extravagant  and  old. 

"  22nd  Dec. —  Anne  and  I  called  on  Princess  Nazli  yesterday.  She 
is  looking  an  old  woman  now,  but  is  still  full  of  life  and  conversation. 
She  has  thrown  herself  lately  into  the  Young  Turkey  movement  at 
Constantinople  and  has  written  a  letter  to  the  Sultan  which  she  asked 
Anne  to  translate  for  her  into  English,  though  she  speaks  English 
perfectly.  She  told  us  she  considered  Abdul  Hamid  very  near  his 
end  now,  and  she  only  hoped  that  he  would  be  assassinated  and  not 
simply  deposed,  as  it  would  be  a  good  lesson  for  his  successor.  Hith- 
erto the  Young  Turks  had  been  averse  from  this  extreme  measure, 
but  according  to  the  latest  news  they  are  now  determined  on  it.  In 
this  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  they  were  following  a  hint  from 
our  Embassy.  Murad,  she  said,  is  quite  sane,  and  would  be  Abdul 
Hamid's  successor.  About  politics  in  Egypt  she  also  talked,  praising 
Cromer  and  the  English  Occupation  and  in  virulent  abuse  of  the 
Khedive.  A  good  deal  of  this  I  know  to  be  nonsense,  but  she  is  a 
clever  woman,  and  I  fancy  has  done  much  towards  converting  travel- 
ling Englishmen  to  a  belief  in  their  '  great  and  noble  work '  in  Egypt. 
Cromer  intervened  with  the  late  Khedive  to  prevent  his  cutting  off 
her  allowance  as  princess  of  the  vice-regal  family. 

"  $oth  Dec. —  Mohammed  Abdu  came  yesterday  and  told  me  the 
news.  There  has  been  a  great  row  on  account  of  the  confirmation  by 
the  native  appeal  court  of  Sheykh  Ali  Yusuf's  acquittal.  Ali  Yusuf 
had  been  prosecuted  for  publishing  in  his  newspaper,  the  '  Moayyad,' 
a  telegram  relating  to  military  events  during  the  Dongola  campaign, 
which  it  was  asserted  he  had  got  from  a  telegraph  clerk  of  the  name 
of  Kirillos.  The  evidence  against  Ali  Yusuf  was  of  the  slightest 
kind ;  that  against  Kirillos  only  presumptive.  The  latter  had  on  one 
occasion  been  seen  copying  a  telegram,  not  the  one  in  question,  pre- 
sumably for  the  press.  Against  Ali  Yusuf  there  was  no  evidence  at 
all.  Nevertheless  Cromer  seems  to  have  determined  on  fighting  a 
battle  with  the  native  press,  and  when  the  case  came  before  the  Appeal 
Court,  Cameron,  the  English  judge,  informed  his  two  native  colleagues 
that  they  were  expected  to  find  the  accused  guilty,  or  they  would  in- 
volve the  Native  Appeal  Court  in  strong  measures  of  '  reform '  which 
would  be  taken  against  it.  He  also  accused  them  of  having  been 
tampered  with  by  the  Khedive,  and  when  they  indignantly  refused  to 
find  the  accused  guilty,  Cameron  refused  at  first  to  sit  with  them  in 
delivering  judgment  of  acquittal.  Now  Cromer  has  announced  that 
a  number  of  English  councillors  would  be  added  to  the  court  so  as  to 
swamp  the  native  members.  Abdu  assures  me  that  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  Khedive  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  and  that  the 
judges  could  not  have  decided  otherwise  on  the  evidence  before  them. 


1897]  Cramer's  Interference  with  the  Law  247 

Nothing  so  scandalous  has  happened  here  since  the  Kitchener  affair, 
and  this  is  really  worse,  as  it  is  an  attack  on  the  integrity  of  the  law. 
Carton  de  Wiart,  the  Belgian  lawyer,  who  is  at  the  head  of  his  pro- 
fession here,  confirms  the  story  to  me,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt 
about  it.  Abdu  declares  tha't  Lord  Cromer  is  led  by  the  nose  by 
certain  Syrians,  of  whom  the  editor  of  the  '  Mokattam  '  and  one  Shakur 
are  the  principal  agents.  Certainly  he  appears  to  be  under  unfortu- 
nate inspiration.  It  has  become  very  much  a  personal  struggle  and 
quarrel  between  Cromer  and  the  Khedive.  Lord  Salisbury  allows 
Cromer  to  carry  matters  with  a  high  hand.  The  Khedive,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  also  led  by  intriguers,  so  that  there  is  really  no  rational 
authority  at  the  head  of  things."  This  was  the  beginning  of  Lord 
Cromer's  interference  with  the  operation  of  the  law  in  Egypt  for  politi- 
cal purposes,  an  intervention  which  he  carried  afterwards  to  extreme 
results. 

"  2&th  Jan.,  1897. —  I  am  preparing  for  a  long  journey  to  Siwah,  and 
perhaps  to  Jebel  Akdar  and  Benghazi.  This  should  take  forty  days  at 
least,  and  there  is  just  a  little  risk  in  it,  especially  as  I  am  far  from 
well,  but  it  is  a  thing  I  want  to  do  and  I  feel  if  I  put  it  off  till  another 
year  it  will  never  be  accomplished.  Possibly  I  may  be  able  to  go  as 
far  as  to  visit  the  Sheykh  el  Senussi,  but  this  is  doubtful,  as  the  Sheykh 
has  disappeared  within  the  last  year,  and  it  is  not  known  exactly  where 
he  is,  but  I  shall  learn  all  about  that  from  my  friend  Abdullah  el  Jibali, 
in  the  Fayoum,  to  whom,  in  the  first  instance,  I  intend  to  go.  I  hope 
all  the  same  to  accomplish  my  journey  successfully  and  be  back  in 
time  for  our  annual  migration  to  England. 

"  2nd  Feb. —  I  have  arranged  to  start  on  my  journey  on  the  5th, 
having  by  good  luck  met  Abdullah  el  Jibali  yesterday,  when  I  was  in 
Cairo,  and  have  arranged  that  he  is  to  send  me  on  to  Siwah  and 
Benghazi.  I  am  looking  forward  immensely  to  this  trip,  and  only  wish 
Anne  was  going  with  me,  but  she  will  not  leave  Judith,  so  I  must  go 
alone.  There  is  just  a  little  danger  in  the  journey,  principally  of  my 
falling  ill,  so  I  have  signed  a  codicil  to  my  will.  All  my  preparations 
are  made,  and  I  am  away  on  Friday  with  a  good  prospect  of  getting 
through  to  Tripoli  or  Benghazi.  If  only  Anne  were  going  too!" 

The  journey  to  Siwah  proved  much  more  difficult  and  dangerous 
than  I  imagined,  and  is  of  sufficient  political  interest  to  make  me  include 
the  whole  of  my  travelling  diary  in  this  volume  contrary  to  my  general 
rule  about  desert  expeditions.  I  started  in  ill  health  and  in  a  frame 
of  mind  of  unusual  recklessness  and  depression  as  well,  feeling  that 
it  would  be  the  last  I  should  make  of  any  serious  kind.  I  had,  too,  at 
the  back  of  my  mind,  the  thought  that  perhaps  I  might  find  among  the 
Senussis  something  of  the  better  tradition  of  Islam  I  had  been  so  often 
disappointed  of  in  the  more  civilized  Mohammedan  lands,  and  possib'y 


248  Start  for  Siwah  [1897 

that  true  desert  hermitage  I  had  so  often  dreamed  of.  Something  of 
this  will  be  found  noted  in  my  diary,  and  I  give  it  hardly  at  all  abridged 
as  it  stands  there. 

"  ^th  Feb. —  Left  Sheykh  Obeyd  at  half-past  seven.  Our  'travelling 
party  consists  of  Suliman  Howeyti,  Owde  his  cousin,  and  Eid,  all 
Bedouins  of  the  Howeytat,  and  Salem,  my  Egyptian  body  servant  for 
cook,  with  Abd-el-Salaam  of  the  Oulad  Ali  Bedouins,  my  own  six 
camels,  one  with  foal  at  foot,  and  my  mare  Yemama.  Anne  and 
Judith  rode  the  first  few  miles  with  me.  We  passed  the  Obelisk  of 
Heliopolis  and  followed  the  Towfikiyeh  Canal  to  Mustorod  where  Anne 
and  Judith  turned  back.  They  saw  a  blue  kingfisher  on  the  way  but 
I  missed  seeing  it,  which  I  take  for  an  ill  omen.  From  Mustorod  we 
followed  the  Helwa,  the  sweet  water  canal  —  overtaking  many  people 
on  their  way  to  market  at  Cairo  with  loads  of  bersim.  A  few  white 
herons  were  about,  and  by  the  cactus  gardens  we  saw  tracks  of  jackals, 
nothing  European,  till  we  reached  the  railway  station  of  Pont  Limon  at 
Cairo,  then  on  through  the  town  'to  Kasr  el  Nil  Bridge,  mixed  up  with 
carriages,  people  on  bicycles,  and  the  usual  mongrel  crowd;  and  on 
to  within  half  a  mile  of  Mena  (nobody  recognizing  me)  when  we  turned 
to  the  left  and  camped  beyond  it  on  the  sand.  I  have  wi'th  me  the 
following  moneys  for  my  journey,  £40  in  English  gold,  £5  in  silver 
dollars,  and  £8  in  small  silver,  £i  in  half  piastres  —  total  £54  135. 

"  6th  Feb. —  To-day  we  followed  up  the  Nile  valley  passing  to  the 
right  of  Sakkara  —  many  tracks  of  foxes  and  jackals  on  the  desert 
edge.  Great  fields  of  lupins  (termts)  — the  Delta  very  green  —  desert 
larks  but  few  other  birds,  except  wagtails.  Camped  at  half-past  two 
by  the  birkeh,  where  the  road  branches  off  to  Tumiya  —  teals,  coots, 
pochards,  pintails,  and  other  small  waterfowl.  The  water  brackish. 
A  very  beautiful  evening. 

"  Abd-el-Salaam  tells  me  he  went  campaigning  with  1,500  of  his 
tribe,  in  the  first  year  of  Ismail's  reign,  to  the  Soudan,  taking  the  outer 
road  of  the  Oases,  and  as  far  as  Darfur  and  Kordofan.  He  told  me 
also  much  about  Jebel  Akhdar  (the  Cyrenaica).  There  are  five  springs 
in  it,  he  says,  with  streams  running  from  them,  all  well  wooded  wi'th 
trees,  zeytoun  (olive)  and  karub,  with  much  grass  and  crops  watered 
by  rain.  It  is  held  by  the  Harabi  tribe  with  whom  the  Oulad  Ali  had 
been  goum  (enemies)  from  the  time  of  Said  Pasha.  But  he,  Abd-el- 
Salaam,  has  friends  amongst  them.  He  has  travelled  'to  Benghazi  and 
to  all  the  Oases,  but  not  to  Tarablus  (Tripoli)  or  Tunis.  He  boasts 
that  the  Oulad  Ali  are  of  Anazeh  blood ;  as  to  the  Harabi  they  are  of 
Harb  blood.  He  is  fasting  for  Ramadan,  which  no  one  else  of  us  is, 
and  is  rather  cross  and  obstinate.  I  am  net  sure  about  taking  him 
beyond  Kasr-el-Jibali.  There  is  beautiful  sweet  camomile  here  for 
our  camels. 


1897]  Across  to  the  Fayoum  249 

"7th  Feb.  (Sunday). —  Off  at  half-past  seven.  A  plain  desert 
march,  following  a  track  made  by  sheep  and  cattle  the  whole  way. 
Sighted  a  fox  in  the  early  morning  on  his  way  home  to  some  limestone 
cliffs.  Also  passed  two  cattle  droves.  No  other  incident.  I  remember 
twenty-one  years  ago  travelling  this  way  and  having  a  tussle  with  a 
young  Arab  horseman,  who  had  jeered  at  us  for  our  European  dresses. 
He  pointed  his  gun  at  us,  and  I  'took  hold  of  it  and  pulled  him  off  his 
horse,  his  girths  giving  way,  and  he  came  a  tumble,  much  to  his  dis- 
comfiture. This  was  in  1876.  We  are  encamped  under  the  tamarisks, 
where  formerly  Fraser,  who  was  travelling  with  us,  and  I  shot  hares. 

"  Abd-el-Salaam  has  gone  on  with  his  recollections.  The  expedition 
he  tells  me  was  six  months  away  on  their  Soudan  campaign,  each 
horseman  receiving  200  piastres  a  month  and  all  found,  including  camels 
and  horses;  also  their  families  received  from  £13  to  £14  while  they 
were  gone.  There  was  no  fighting,  '  victorious  without  fighting.'  In 
all  this  Western  desert  southwards  there  is  no  pasture,  except  a  little 
nossi  that  comes  up  after  the  rain,  or  northwards  till  you  come  near 
the  Mediterranean. 

"  8th  Feb. —  A  continuous  march  of  eleven  hours  through  the  Fay- 
oum, passing  by  Toumiyeh,  Senuris,  Fidimin,  Senhur,  Abuxeh,  and 
Bisheh.  Then,  having  crossed  the  river,  a  branch  of  the  Bahar  Yusuf, 
we  camped  on  the  other  side,  at  nightfall,  a  couple  of  miles  short  of 
Kasr-el-Jibali.  I  preferred  taking  excuse  of  the  night  to  stop,  for  I  was 
tired,  and  I  knew  that  going  on  to  the  castle  would  mean  sitting  up  till 
midnight  waiting  for  a  sheep  to  be  killed  and  cooked.  The  Fayoum 
is  a  bad  country  to  camp  in,  all  black  mud  and  crops,  with  hardly  an 
open  spot ;  and  we  were  lucky,  after  travelling  five  or  six  miles  looking 
in  vain,  at  last  to  pitch  upon  a  dry  unoccupied  field  on  the  edge  of  the 
cliff  above  the  river. 

"  At  Toumiyeh  the  land  has  been  taken  possession  of  and  cultivated 
by  some  Jews,  who  got  a  concession  from  the  Government.  Otherwise 
the  town  is  much  as  it  was  in  1876,  when  I  remember  going  to  see  a 
poor  notable  of  the  town  who  was  dying,  they  told  us,  of  love.  The 
Mamur  of  the  district  in  those  days  had  taken  from  him  forcibly  one 
of  his  wives,  the  youngest,  last,  and  best  beloved  of  them ;  and  we 
found  him  lying  on  his  death-bed,  surrounded  by  his  friends  lamenting 
his  loss,  and  he  smelling  an  onion  which  he  held  in  his  hand. 

"  qth  Feb. —  I  was  already  asleep  last  night  when  Abdallah  Minjo- 
war,  hearing  of  my  being  in  camp  so  near  him,  rode  out  to  see  me ; 
and  I  had  to  get  up  to  receive  him.  We  drank  tea  together  and  made 
all  the  arrangements  necessary  for  my  onward  journey.  He  will  send 
two  men  with  me,  Minshawi  and  another,  with  camels  to  El  Wah  (the 
small  Oasis),  Siwah,  Jerabub,  and  Jebel  Akhdar,  and  will  write  letters 
to  the  various  Sheykhs,  and  see  me  through  to  Benhazi  or  Dernah. 


250  Abdallah  Minjowar  [1897 

Abdallah  is  by  position  a  great  man.  He  has  an  immense  territory  and 
lives  in  a  castle,  which  if  not  mediaeval  belongs  to  the  age  of  Moham- 
med Ali,  and  has  a  really  beautiful  stone  gateway  worthy  of  any  cen- 
tury. He  tells  me  his  father  and  his  tribe  came  into  Egypt  first  in 
Mohammed  Ali's  time,  having  been  invited  here  from  Jebel  Akhdar 
in  Tripoli.  He  was  once  there  with  his  father,  Minjowar,  as  a  boy. 
In  appearance  he  reminds  me  of  the  Emir  Abd  el  Kader,  and  is  in 
truth  a  man  of  high  and  generous  character,  a  great  personage  here 
on  the  desert  edge.  The  Government  has  recently  made  a  high  road 
for  him  to  Medinet  el  Fayoum,  of  which  he  is  proud.  I  rode  in  to  see 
him  after  breakfast,  and  we  are  camped  now  inside  his  wall.  Many 
poor  people,  particularly  boys  and  women,  have  run  up  to  kiss  my  hand 
yesterday  and  to-day.  Expenses  besides  bersim,  10  piastres.  Yester- 
day we  passed  an  immense  swarm  of  bees  covering  the  rocks  in  a 
ravine  by  the  river. 

"  All  is  satisfactorily  arranged.  Abdallah  will  send  Minshawi  with 
us,  and  a  second  man  with  two  camels,  and  a  head  man,  Beseys,  on  a 
delul.  He  is  to  carry  letters  of  credence  for  us  to  the  chief  persons 
at  Siwah  and  Jerabub,  and  to  the  two  principal  Harabi  Sheykhs  of  the 
Jebel  Akhdar,  at  whose  tents  I  am  promised  to  alight  within  twenty, 
say  thirty  days.  I  shall  not  be  able  to  see  Senussi  as  he  has  left  Jerabub, 
but  I  shall  see  the  head  of  the  Zaghwiyeh,  the  Monastery  there,  and 
be  well  received.  We  are  to  start  on  Thursday,  I  ith,  with  four  ardebs 
of  beans  for  the  camels  and  barley  for  the  mare.  Salem  is  to  go  into 
Medinet  el  Fayoum  to-morrow,  to  get  what  things  are  still  required, 
as  nothing  will  be  procurable  anywhere  beyond.  I  have  spent  the  day 
slugging  in  my  tent  —  very  hot,  with  many  flies,  an  object  of  atten- 
tion for  the  villagers,  and  of  attentions  from  Abdallah,  his  relations  and 
friends.  Beseys,  who  is  to  go  with  me,  is  an  oldish  man,  with  a 
rugged,  ugly  face,  but  I  think  that  he  will  do.  Minshawi  we  know 
already.  Abd-el-Salaam  has  left  us.  He  was  too  old  for  the  journey, 
and  required  too  much  in  the  way  of  comfort,  and  did  too  little  in 
the  way  of  work.  Also  Abdallah  objected  to  him,  and  he  himself 
was  inclined  to  leave,  so  I  paid  him  his  five  days,  and  he  is  gone. 

"  We  spent  the  evening  talking,  principally  with  a  very  intelligent  man 
of  fellah  origin,  and  of  good  education,  who  had  been  an  Arabist,  and 
now  is  living  here,  cultivating  a  few  feddans,  which  Abdallah  has  let 
him  have  more  or  less  as  a  charity.  He  gave  us  his  views  of  Egyptian 
politics,  which  are  exactly  Arabi's  old  ones.  It  is  refreshing  to  hear 
them  in  these  days.  Old  Beseys  listened  with  an  occasional  word  of 
approval,  but  Abdallah  was  sent  to  sleep  by  it  and  retired. 

"  Kasr-el-Jibali  is  a  place  of  religion,  and  it  being  Ramadan,  prayer 
goes  on  nearly  all  day  long,  from  an  hour  before  sunrise,  when  a  kind 
of  matins  is  chanted  by  a  select  few,  till  sunset,  when  there  is  a  general 


1897]  A  Place  of  Piety  251 

service  attended  by  everybody.  The  singing  is  far  from  good,  as 
each  worshipper  intones  in  his  own  key,  and  the  effect  is  not  unlike  that 
of  the  old  village  hymn-singing  of  fifty  years  ago  in  England.  There 
is  even  a  certain  non-conformist  popular  character  about  it,  which  is 
different  from  anything  I  have  heard  elsewhere.  The  mosque  is  a 
new  one,  built  close  to  the  castle,  in  excellent  taste.  It  might  be  a 
hundred  or  two  hundred  years  old  for  all  one  can  tell  from  its  archi- 
tecture. It  has  no  minaret,  and  is  a  plain  square  buttressed  building, 
with  a  slight  ornament  on  the  top  and  lancet  windows.  We  are 
camped  too  near  it  for  quiet,  and  have  been  exposed  all  day  to  the 
curiosity  of  prayer-goers.  Also  the  ground  is  very  dirty,  and  life  is 
made  difficult  with  flies.  Indoors,  in  the  castle,  it  is  hardly  better,  for 
the  guest  rooms  are  built  for  the  summer,  and  are  cold  to  sit  in,  being 
away  from  the  sun.  So  I  am  obliged  to  wait  on  in  my  tent  till  the 
hospitable  pleasure  of  Abdallah  is  exhausted,  and  I  have  his  permission 
to  begin  my  march.  These  days  of  hospitable  waiting  in  towns  and 
villages  are  a  heavy  price  one  has  to  pay  for  the  joys  of  desert  travel- 
ling. But  my  departure  is  promised  for  to-morrow  at  noon.  Suli- 
man's  expenditure  in  provisions  for  the  journey  comes  to  275  piastres, 
something  under  £3. 

"  nth  Feb. —  Away  at  last  in  the  highest  of  spirits,  with  a  cool  west- 
erly wind  blowing  in  our  faces.  The  camels  arrived  early,  and  I  ob- 
tained Abdallah's  permission,  dear  good  man,  to  mount  and  go.  When 
all  was  settled  I  told  him  I  wished  to  have  a  few  words  with  him  alone ; 
and  we  went  into  the  great  room  of  the  castle,  and  I  told  him  I  was 
very  anxious  to  see,  if  not  the  Sheykh  el  Senussi,  who  has  gone  south 
to  Kufra,  at  least  one  of  the  principal  Sheykhs  of  the  tank  (the  reli- 
gious order)  at  Jerabub,  and  I  begged  him  to  give  me  a  letter  for  one 
of  them.  '  You  know,'  I  said,  '  that  I  have  for  a  long  time  been  with 
you  at  heart,  of  the  mumenin,  but  I  have  not  borne  witness  for 
reasons  you  will  understand.  I  wish  to  ask  certain  questions  of  the 
Sheykhs  of  the  Senussia,  and  to  understand  their  teaching,  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  members  of  the  tarik  are  the  only  good  Moslems 
in  the  world,  or  at  any  rate  are  the  best.'  The  good  man  readily  as- 
sented, and  showed  me  much  affection,  and  told  me  that  he  had  al- 
ready written  to  the  head  of  the  community  at  Jerabub,  introducing 
me  as  the  son  of  Hajji  Batran  of  Aleppo,  for  he  thought  that  would 
give  me  a  favourable  reception.  But  I  begged  him  to  write  again  and 
tell  the  Sheykh  the  truth  of  the  case,  that  I  was  an  Englishman  who 
desired  instruction,  and  he  has  accordingly  done  so,  though  he  has 
left  the  other  letters,  those  written  to  the  Harabi  Sheykhs  of  the  Jebel 
Akhdar,  as  they  were  with  my  name  as  Ibn  Batran.  Fortunately  I 
knew  Hajji  Batran  when  at  Aleppo,  or  rather  I  knew  his  son,  Hajji 
Mahmud,  and  may,  perhaps,  be  able  to  personate  a  grandson  from 


252  Adballah  Provides  Letters  [1897 

so  far  away.  A  cousin  of  /  bdallah's,  one  Ali,  who  accompanied  me 
on  horseback  as  far  as  this  camp,  has  given  me  particulars  of  the 
arrangement  made  and  tells  me  that  i't  is  necessary,  inasmuch  as  the 
Arabs  of  the  Jebel  Akhdar  bitterly  hate  all  of  European  race,  whereas, 
if  presented  as  a  relation  of  Hajji  Batran,  who  had  married  a  hatherieh, 
townswoman,  of  Dernah,  I  should  be  accepted  as  a  relation.  The  Han- 
nadi,  he  explained,  were  of  the  Beraza  clan,  the  same  as  the  Harabi. 
There  was  a  son  Naif  born  to  Batran;  and  I  must  personate  him.  I 
do  not  like  this.  But  Ali  said  there  was  real  danger  in  going  among 
people  so  wild  as  his  mountain  kinsmen ;  and  he  besought  me  to  be 
content  with  Siwah,  and  to  turn  back  from  there  by  the  sea-coast 
route  to  Mariut.  I  am,  however,  in  'the  mood  for  an  adventure, 
dangerous  or  not."  [N.B.  It  will  be  seen  that  these  letters  of  Abdal- 
lah,  whatever  their  precise  nature,  were  unfortunately  conceived,  and 
brought  about  the  misunderstanding  which  led  to  the  attack  made  on 
me  at  Siwah.] 

"  We  are  encamped  five  miles  from  Kasr-el-Jibali  in  a  bit  of  tamarisk 
underwood  well  screened  from  the  wind,  at  the  outmost  edge  of  Nile 
irrigation  in  the  direction  of  the  Oases  —  how  happy  to  be  at  last  alone ! 
The  Nile  wa'ter  reaches  no  farther  westwards.  A  little  run  of  it  feeds 
the  last  fields,  which  are  of  wheat,  barley,  and  helbeh  (a  sort  of  clover). 
On  the  helbeh  Yemama  is  turned  out  to  graze,  and  the  camels  eat  it 
brought  in  to  them.  The  two  new  camels  have  arrived,  sturdy  little 
beas'ts  of  the  Western  type,  brown  both,  and  rough  haired  —  not  beau- 
tiful, but  good.  The  men,  too,  are  of  a  wholly  other  type  from  that 
east  of  the  Nile.  Suliman  and  his  two  Howeytat  companions  have 
almost  a  look  of  breeding  contrasted  with  them,  while  Ali's  mare,  of 
which  he  is  proud,  as  being  of  western  blood,  is  a  plain  barb,  hones'tly 
shaped,  but  of  no  distinctive  type.  Beauty  is  the  natural  gift,  to  desert 
man  and  desert  beast,  only  of  peninsular  Arabia. 

"  i2th  Feb. —  Abdallah  appeared  again  last  night,  having  been  pre- 
ceded by  his  younger  son,  a  pleasant  youth  of  mixed  'type  —  the  son 
of  his  jari  (concubine)  Salem  said  —  who  had  dined  with  me.  Though 
grown  up,  the  young  man  has  never  seen  more  of  the  world  than 
Medinet  el  Fayoum  and  El  Wah,  not  even  Cairo  or  the  Nile.  Abdallah 
has  a  separate  establishment  with  the  boy's  mother  close  by  here.  He 
and  I  embraced  affectionately  at  parting.  He  has  done  everything  in 
his  power  to  further  my  wishes  about  the  journey  and  has  brought 
seven  or  eight  letters  which  he  has  written  to  various  persons  on  my 
route,  including  the  most  important  of  all,  one  to  Sidi  Abu  Seyf,  the 
head  prior  of  the  Jerabub  monastery,  Senussi's  right  hand.  He  has 
entrusted  me  to  old  Beseys,  who  is  one  of  the  confraternity,  and  who 
is  to  explain  to  Abu  Seyf  how  matters  stand  with  me  religiously.  '  Abu 
Seyf,'  Abdallah  said,  '  is  as  my  own  heart  to  me,  and  he  will  treat  you 


1897]  Wady  Rayyan  253 

as  myself/  Letters,  too,  have  been  written  for  the  two  principal 
Bedouin  Sheykhs  of  the  Harabi  in  Jebel  Akhdar,  and  I  am  to  go  on  to 
Benghazi  if  I  like  or  return  by  Dernah  and  the  sea  route  to  Skanderia. 

"  We  started  to-day  at  sunrise  and  I  walked  an  hour  or  more  on  foot, 
it  being  cold,  before  mounting  my  delul.  Our  course  south  by  west, 
then  turning  more  westward.  At  eleven  we  came  to  the  edge  of  Wady 
Rayyan,  a  great  chaotic  depression  from  50  to  150  feet  below  the  Nile. 
It  is  absolutely  barren,  and  there  is  no  trace  in  it  of  Nile  mud  or  clay 
of  any  kind,  most  of  the  surface  soil  being  drift-sand  and  grit,  with 
the  bare  limestone  rocks  showing  here  and  there.  This  effectually 
disproves  the  theory  that  Rayyan  was  the  Lake  Maeris  of  Herodotus, 
it  is  nothing  but  a  dried  up  sebkha,  like  the  Jof  and  many  another 
desert  depression.  There  are  curious  rocks  in  it  set  in  lines,  which 
look  exactly  like  the  remains  of  buildings;  but  they  are  all,  I  think, 
natural.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  any  part  of  the  Valley  was  ever  in- 
habited except  perhaps  by  hermits,  who  planted  the  palm  tress  which 
still  struggle  to  live  on  near  the  springs.  Descending  into  the  belly  of 
the  wady,  we  quickly  found  ourselves  among  nefuds  (sandhills)  which 
run  across  it  here  and  there  in  lines  from  north-west  to  south-east, 
and  make  effective  fortifications  against  camels.  Here  Suliman's  desert 
craft  became  of  service  (for  the  three  Harabis  with  us  were  useless 
for  anything  but  pottering  along  a  track)  and  he  and  I  went  forward 
to  look  out  the  easiest  places  for  the  camels  to  cross,  while  in  the 
steepest  Suliman  and  Eid  made  paths  for  them  slantwise  in  the  deep 
sand.  The  old  camel  man,  Haj  Abd-el-Rahman,  not  choosing  to  fol- 
low us,  was  left  behind,  and  we  consequently  had  to  camp  some  four 
miles  short  of  the  main  spring,  but  in  a  nice  spot,  a  deep  hollow  under 
sand  hillocks  and  tarfa  clumps.  This  part  of  the  wady  has  vegetation, 
tarfa,  ghurkud,  erta  —  none,  however,  in  green  leaf  —  much  of  it 
dead,  firewood  abundant.  Barom.  50  feet  below  the  Nile  water  at 
Kasr-el-Jibali. 

"  i$th  Feb. —  At  sunrise  we  started,  after  a  good  night's  rest  for 
me  under  my  hejeyra  (my  carpet  shelter,  the  one  with  a  scorpion 
worked  on  it),  and  on  to  the  spring.  This  lies  due  south  of  the  khusm 
(snout)  of  Rayyan,  at  the  extreme  edge  of  the  vegetation,  a  number 
of  bush  palms  together,  with  a  lovely  spring  welling  up  in  a  sand- 
bottomed  basin,  the  water  running  in  a  little  stream  for  twenty  yards, 
when  it  disappears.  The  two  Harabis,  Beseys  and  Minshawi,  attribute 
to  it  miraculous  virtues.  The  water  only  runs,  they  say,  when  travel- 
lers come  to  drink,  and  it  varies  in  volume  with  the  number  of  their 
camels.  When  there  are  many  camels  you  have  only  to  encourage  it 
by  calling  to  it  '  Ha,  ha,  ha,  ha,  ha ! '  and  it  comes  bubbling  up  so  fast 
that  you  can  water  200  camels  in  the  afternoon.  It  is  hot  by  night, 
cold  by  day.  To-day,  the  wind  being  cold,  it  was  lukewarm,  rather 


254  History  of  the  Senussis 

flat  water,  ill-tasted  but  not  salt,  'therefore  '  sweet,'  as  desert  waters 
go.  Yemama  drank  well  of  it,  and  we  took  away  two  girbehs  full,  in 
addition  to  our  two  of  Nile  water,  as  this  is  the  last  water  until  we 
come  to  El  Wah.  Some  '  sons  of  dog  who  have  no  fear  of  God  '  had 
fired  the  palms  and  left  some  of  them  in  ruins,  but  the  palm  immediately 
over  the  spring  was  untouched  in  flower.  We  found  tracks  of 
gazelles,  hares,  jerboas,  and  foxes  there,  but  no  recent  traces  of  men 
or  camels.  The  wady  is  little  frequented. 

"  From  'the  spring  we  turned  south-west  and  mounted  by  an  even 
slope  to  the  top  of  the  nukbeh  (pass),  which  we  found  barred  by  a 
complete  rampart  of  nefud,  which  we  had  some  difficulty  in  surmount- 
ing—  then  on  and  on  through  a  desolate  land  wholly  barren,  a  cliff  on 
our  left  hand,  until  at  the  asr  we  came  to  a  singular  rock,  exquisitely 
poised,  about  twerity  feet  high,  of  friable  lime  stone  worn  away  on 
every  side,  below.  A  mile  or  two  beyond  this  we  descried  a  little 
pasture  shgda  with  a  seyyal  tree.  Here  at  4.15  we  encamped. 

"  Beseys  gave  me  some  information  this  afternoon  as  we  rode  to- 
gether. The  elder  Senussi,  he  tells  me,  came  from  Fez  and  died  at  Jera- 
bub  in  the  year  A.H.  1271.  Beseys  saw  him,  an  ancient  man  wi'th  a 
small  white  beard,  regular  features  'like  your  own.'  He  was  no  or 
120  years  old  when  he  died.  He  left  two  sons,  Mohammed  Sidi  el 
Mahdi  and  Sherif.  The  latter  died  last  year.  The  elder  left  Jerabub 
in  anger  with  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  after  this,  and  has  gone  with  a 
few  disciples  to  form  a  new  Zaghwiyeh  in  the  South.  I  understood  him 
to  say  that  the  quarrel  was  in  consequence  of  the  stopping  of  a  subsidy, 
but  I  may  have  heard  him  incorrectly  as  he  has  lost  his  front  teeth  and 
is  hardly  intelligible.  He  told  me  that  from  Fez  'to  the  Hejaz  there 
were  about  150  Zaghwiyehs  containing  each  from  twenty  to  thirty 
brethren  akhwan.  People  exaggerated  the  numbers  because  there  were 
many  lay  servitors,  who  cultivated  the  crops  and  bough't  or  sold  for 
the  brothers.  There  is  no  brotherhood  at  Kasr-el-Jibali.  Abdallah's 
grandfather  was  the  first  who  came  to  Egypt.  He  became  awely  (saint) 
and  is  buried  in  the  koubbah  at  Kasr-el-Jibali.  He  left  four  sons, 
of  whom  Minjowar  was  the  eldest. 

"  i4th  Feb. —  A  long  monotonous  tramp  from  sunrise  to  sunset  across 
a  gravelly  hamad  (plain),  no  leafy  thing  all  day.  Camped  in  the 
plain  about  400  feet  above  the  sea  —  30  miles. 

"  15th  Feb. —  Again  from  sunrise  to   sunset.     Passed  a  beautiful 
wady  with  seyyal  trees  —  gholam,  shgda,  nossi  —  Khabra  Balbal  —  then 
the  Bahr  beta  ma  (river  without  water),  whose  height  is  350  feet  above 
the  sea.     A  long  day's  tracking  of  the  road  obliterated  with  nefuds  - 
hyaena,  wolf,  and  fox  tracks.     We  camped  in  the  nefud. 

"  i6th  Feb. —  We  are  encamped  at  last  in  the  basin  of  the  Wahat 
(oases),  barom.  315  feet  above  the  sea  and  300  below  the  sand-ridge 


1897]  Talk  -with  Beseys  about  Religion  255 

at  the  top  of  the  pass,  where  we  first  caught  sight  of  'the  valley.  This 
was  a  happy  spectacle,  a  break  in  the  brown  rags  of  the  desert  fore- 
ground, dipping  down  and  showing  blue  hills  beyond.  From  this  pass 
we  went  down  by  a  gradual  descent  for  a  couple  of  hours.  We  are 
still  some  miles  from  the  two  villages  of  the  oasis,  with  'their  palm 
groves  showing  blackly  against  the  rocks  beyond  them.  We  are  en- 
joying an  afternoon's  rest  quietly  in  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  half 
a  mile  from  a  spring.  The  sandy  ground  is  pleasant,  with  hillocks 
tufted  with  green  rough  grass,  ekresh  and  rukeyb,  tamarisk,  ithcl,  and 
dwarf  palm.  There  are  two  springs,  one  on  a  mound  20  feet  high,  but 
the  water  was  flat  and  bad  —  the  other  sweet,  which  runs  for  a  few 
yards  in  open  ground,  with  a  little  greenness  round  it  —  no  trees. 

"  It  is  agreed  'that  from  this  point  I  am  to  adopt  a  Syrian  identity  as 
Sakr  ibn  Zeydun  el  Helali,  related  by  marriage  to  Sidi  Abd  el  Kader  at 
Damascus,  and  to  Hajji  Batran  at  Aleppo,  with  a  title  of  Bey  from  the 
Dowlah,  travelling  to  see  his  relations  at  Dernah  and  Benghazi.  I  shall 
not  go  into  the  villages  here,  so  that  no  questions  may  be  asked  by 
officials.  Beseys,  too,  is  anxious  to  keep  clear  of  them. 

"  I  like  Beseys.  As  we  rode  ahead  of  our  party  yesterday  on  our 
deluls,  I  talked  to  him  about  religion  and  about  my  wish  for  a  hermit's 
life  in  the  desert,  and  he  much  applauded  the  idea  and  promised  to 
take  me  'to  a  spiritual  father  of  his  own,  Sidi  Maymum,  who  lived 
just  such  a  life  in  the  Jebel  Akhdar.  The  wely  would  put  me  in  the 
way  of  a  true  vocation  and  give  me  all  the  advice  I  wanted.  I  asked 
him  about  Jerabub  and  the  Zaghwiyeh  there.  He  assures  me  the 
whole  of  the  Akhwan  have  left  it.  Sherif,  the  second  son  of  Senussi, 
followed  his  brother  Sidi  el  Mahdi  in  his  flight  sou'thwards,  but  came 
back  to  die  at  Jerabub,  and  is  buried  there  with  his  father.  Abu  Seyf 
upon  this  left  Jerabub  with  the  rest  of  his  following,  and  now  there  are 
only  lay  brothers  and  poor  people  there  who  look  after  the  palms. 
Beseys  is  very  pious  himself,  and  prays  every  morning  for  some  time 
as  he  rides.  While  we  were  talking  earnestly  on  these  pious  matters 
we  missed  our  track  in  the  nefuds,  and  were  some  time  finding  it  again. 
It  is  exciting  work  picking  out  the  cold  scent  of  an  old  track  by  odds 
and  ends  of  camel  jcllch  and  doubtful  landmarks,  as  exciting  as  fol- 
lowing hounds,  and  we  became  keen  and  jealous.  But  Beseys  is  a 
really  good  old  man,  and  I  think  takes  a  true  interest  in  my  conversion. 
It  is  forty-three  years  since  he  travelled  the  road  before,  being  then  a 
boy  of  an  age  young  enough  to  need  being  told  not  to  lag  behind,  or 
get  separated  from  the  rest.  That  would  make  him  no  older  than  I 
am,  but  in  appearance  he  is  quite  an  '  ancient  of  days.'  We  pot  back 
eventually  into  the  right  road  by  following  a  hyaena  track.  Hyrcnas. 
jackals  and  foxes  in  the  desert  are  fond  of  frequenting  caravan  routes 
for  what  they  may  chance  to  pick  up,  and  know  them  well  —  the  first 


256  The  Little  Oasis  El  Wah  [1897 

for  the  hap  of  a  dead  beast,  the  foxes  for  dropped  dates.  We  passed 
a  place  where  foxes  had  been  gathering  scraps  at  the  site  of  an  encamp- 
ment. At  Balbal  yesterday  there  were  fresh  gazelle  tracks,  besides 
larks  singing  and  wagtails  quite  at  home.  There  are  no  Bedouins  in 
these  deserts  as  there  is  no  water  and  little  pasturage.  The  thorn  trees 
are  consequently  uncut,  and  the  nossi  grass  of  last  spring  stands  un- 
eaten. Balbal  is  a  beautiful  spot.  The  Bahr  is  much  less  interesting, 
being  merely  one  of  'those  long  serpentine  depressions  so  common  in 
the  desert.  This  one  being  350  feet  above  sea  level  cannot  have  ever 
been  a  mouth  of  the  Nile.  Its  bottom  is  of  limestone  without  a  trace 
of  Nile  mud.  A  caravan  carrying  dates  was  just  setting  out  from 
the  spring  as  we  arrived. 

"  i^th  Feb. —  We  have  moved  camp  to  a  spring  just  north  of  Bawiti, 
which  is  the  last  village  of  the  Little  Oasis  westwards. 

"  Last  night  I  had  a  long  ride  alone  to  get  a  look  at  the  Oasis,  climb- 
ing on  Yemama  to  the  top  of  the  Harra  which  stands  like  an  island  in 
its  midst.  The  top  of  it  is  level  ground,  smooth  enough  to  canter  on 
from  end  to  end,  one  of  the  loneliest  places  I  ever  saw,  for  I  crossed  no 
single  track  of  beast  or  bird  or  reptile,  nor  was  there  trace  of  men  hav- 
ing ever  been  there,  though  so  near  the  villages.  It  is  apparently  vol- 
canic. One  gets  a  good  bird's-eye  view  from  it  of  the  palm  groves  and 
the  four  villages,  Sabu,  Mandija  and  the  double  village  of  Kasr  and 
Bawiti.  It  is  clear  that  much  more  land  was  cultivated  formerly.  The 
ithcl  and  tamarisk  clumps  must  have  been  private  property.  They  are 
being  fast  destroyed  now.  There  is  a  deal  of  rough  camel  pasture  in 
the  Oasis,  so  that  we  grazed  as  we  went. 

,"  I  met  a  man  cutting  palm  leaves  to-day  to  make  matting  and  asked 
him  to  get  us  a  guide  to  Sivvah,  as  neither  Beseys  nor  Haj  Abderrah- 
man,  nor  yet  Minshawi  know  the  road  any  farther.  I  was  riding  alone 
in  front  on  Udeyha,  and  having  stopped  was  sleeping  under  a  palm 
tree  outside  Bawiti  when  I  was  wakened  by  a  man  greeting  me.  He 
was  a  Berber  from  Farafra  who  offered  to  be  of  use  and  showed  us 
the  spring  hard  by.  Now  we  have  sent  Minshawi  and  Salem  in  to 
market  and  are  camped  in  the  sand  hills. 

"  In  the  evening  I  rode  round  the  Oasis  with  Minshawi,  but  did  not 
enter  the  village,  as  the  Government  Chiauss  has  been  inquisitive  about 
me,  and  I  think  it  prudent  to  run  no  risks.  There  is  nice  half  a  grazing 
here.  Everywhere  there  are  bunches  of  palms  with  springs  more  or 
less  in  use  for  gardens,  some  of  which  are  beautiful  with  large  olive 
trees,  csshaar,  sont,  and  safsaf  (willow).  The  palms  are  the  most 
vigorous  I  ever  saw,  having,  as  the  saying  is,  '  their  feet  in  the  water, 
their  heads  in  the  fire.'  We  passed  the  ruins  of  a  building,  probably 
Roman. 

"  i&th  Feb. —  Haj  Abderrahman  has  left  us  to  go  home.     He  would 


1897]  The  Slave  Osman  for  Guide  257 

have  taken  the  two  camels  back  with  him  but  I  would  not  allow  it,  as 
they  are  Abdallah's,  not  his,  and  I  told  him  I  would  be  answerable  for 
tfie  price  of  the  beasts.  He  was  unwilling  to  go  farther.  Now  Min- 
shawi  has  brought  us  a  tall  Soudani,  Osman,  from  Siwah  who  will 
travel  with  us,  and  we  hope  to  be  off  not  later  than  noon.  There  are 
many  tracks  of  foxes  and  jackals  about,  and  I  heard  an  owl  at  dawn. 

"  Off  at  10.30,  and  marched  till  sunset.  The  nukbe  lies  due  north, 
and  is  steep.  There  was  no  marked  track  till  we  crossed  the  caravan 
road  and  turned  west.  The  plain  on  the  upper  ground  is  an  absolutely 
barren  hamad,  gravel  and  sand  grit,  quite  devoid  of  life  —  500  to  600 
feet  above  the  sea.  No  sign  of  recent  travellers  on  the  road.  A  very 
cold  north-west  wind.  Camped  under  lee  of  a  low  tell. 

"  igth  Feb. —  Thermom.  42°  and  a  bitter  wind.  I  find  that  Osman 
the  Soudani  has  only  been  this  way  once  before,  and  that  twenty-five 
years  ago,  and  travelling  by  night,  and  in  the  opposite  direction  to 
what  we  are  now  going.  He  is  a  Falata  from  Bornu,  which  he  left 
when  seventeen  years  old  'on  account  of  a  war.'  [He  had  been  taken 
as  a  slave,  and  had  been  carried  by  his  captors  to  Merzouk,  the  northern 
oasis,  and  ultimately  to  Siwah,  whence  he  had  escaped  to  El  Wah, 
travelling  by  night,  and  hiding  in  the  daytime.  For  this  reason  he 
knew  almost  nothing  of  the  road,  except  the  general  direction.  He 
did  not  tell  me  this  till  afterwards.]  He  has  been  astray  in  the  oases 
ever  since,  and  may  now  be  about  fifty.  I  like  him  as  he  is  plain 
spoken,  and  with  an  agreeable  black  face,  nearly  pure  negro  blood, 
though  he  boasts  of  the  Falata  as  Arabs.  The  Falata  have  a  Sultan 
of  their  own,  he  says,  and  know  nothing  of  the  Dowlah. 

"  Eleven  hours'  march  to-day  —  thirty-two  miles.  Camped  amid 
driving  sand,  barely  protected  from  the  wind. 

"  2Oth  Feb. —  Crossed  several  nefuds  to-day  all  running  north-west 
and  south-east,  which  obliged  us  to  travel  far  south,  and  then  north- 
west again  —  then  came  to  another  deep  depression  where  the  caravan 
track  disappeared  for  fully  ten  miles.  We  had  much  trouble  following 
it,  but  by  the  help  of  skeleton  camels  recovered  it  at  the  nukbe  beyond. 
At  one  place  we  came  across  an  old  mensil  (encampment)  with  a  dead 
camel,  and  the  wooden  frame  of  a  hedajch  (camel  saddle)  all  at  least 
two  years  old.  But  Eid  and  Minshawi  collected  the  jelleh  (camel 
dung)  finding  it  still  good  for  firing,  and  Suliman  made  prize  of  the 
saddletree.  Beyond  the  nukbe  at  four  o'clock  we  came  for  the  first  time 
since  leaving  El  Wah,  on  a  bit  of  camel  pasture,  sreygd  and  camomile 
and  nossi.  The  nossi,  though  a  year  old,  had  not  been  grazed,  but  I 
found  the  hole  and  track  of  a  desert  mouse.  Yemama  eagerly  devoured 
the  nossi.  Osman  surprised  me  by  saying  of  her,  '  Her  sire  is  perhaps 
koheyl.'  I  find  that  he  knows  all  about  the  horse  breeds,  Duheym, 
Jilfa,  and  the  rest.  He  assures  me  that  in  Bornou  and  Wadi  they  have 


258  We  Lose  Our  Road  [189? 

thoroughbred  koheyls,  the  great  people  as  many  as  ten  of  them,  besides 
great  multitudes  of  camels.  We  are  encamped  in  a  pleasing  spot,  with 
just  enough  of  the  pasture  to  feed  our  ten  camels. 

"  2\st  Feb. —  To-day  has  been  full  of  excitement  for  us.  After  about 
four  miles  from  our  start  we  came  to  the  edge  of  another  great  de- 
pression, the  nukbe  being  well  marked  with  stone  heaps  pointing  to  a 
corresponding  nukbe  beyond,  about  eight  miles  off.  We  went  down, 
therefore,  confidently,  though  the  track  quickly  disappeared.  The  de- 
pression was  choked  with  nefuds  to  our  right,  but  to  our  left  was  clear, 
the  loose  soil  being  composed  mostly  of  old  shells.  Its  height  above  the 
sea  at  the  lowest  point  was  100  feet.  It  soon,  however,  became  plain 
that  we  were  out  of  the  track,  though  the  westerly  direction  was  good, 
and  we  had  to  cross  a  sebkha  (salt  swamp)  with  a  treacherous  bottom, 
and  climb  a  very  steep  gradient  to  the  nukbe.  Osman,  nevertheless, 
maintained  that  all  was  right,  but  soon  we  found  ourselves  in  a  wilder- 
ness of  nefuds.  Here  Osman's  knowledge  came  to  an  end,  and  after 
floundering  over  ridge  after  ridge  for  some  time,  he  acknowledged  that 
he  knew  not  where  he  was.  We  therefore  sat  down  and  called  a  coun- 
cil, and  having  watered  Yemama  from  the  skins,  somewhat  solemnly, 
for  we  felt  that  it  was  the  last  we  could  spare  her,  it  was  agreed  that 
Suliman  and  I  should  go  forward  alone  scouting,  either  to  come  across 
the  track  or  find  some  height  from  which  we  might  get  sight  of  a  land- 
mark. It  seemed  an  equal  chance  to  try  right  or  left  for  the  track. 
At  starting  we  crossed  the  tracks  of  a  gazelle,  an  ariel  Suliman  said, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  a  good  omen.  After  a  while,  bearing  somewhat  to 
the  right,  we  got  out  of  the  nefud,  and  on  to  a  hard  gravel,  and  I  sent 
Yemama  along  at  a  good  pace  in  the  direction  of  some  hills  to  the  west 
north  west,  saying  all  the  prayers  I  knew  to  my  saints,  Mohammedan 
and  Christian,  for  a  good  issue.  Nor  had  I  long  to  wait.  At  first  it 
seemed  a  very  hopeless  quest,  with  a  brown  horizon  all  round  me  and 
low  brown  hills  each*  like  the  other.  But  it  was  nice  cantering  with  the 
fresh  wind  in  my  face,  and  as  I  got  on  to  higher  ground  the  view 
opened  and  I  saw  the  hill  I  was  following  rise  higher  and  higher  ap-; 
parently  about  five  miles  off.  At  a  point  of  the  plain  where  there  was 
a  little  mound  I  stopped  and  looked  all  round  me.  Far  away  to  the 
west  there  seemed  to  be  a  little  break  in  the  horizon,  and  examining 
through  my  glasses  I  felt  sure  it  was  a  wady,  the  wady  of  Sittarah 
(where  the  water  was  said  to  be  which  we  were  looking  for).  Still  it 
might  be  a  mistake,  an  effect  of  mirage,  and  I  galloped  back  to  Suliman, 
who  was  following  on  my  dclul,  to  ask  his  opinion.  We  then  both 
agreed  that  we  saw  a  wady  with  mounds  of  tarfa,  perhaps  palms,  and 
that  this  was  our  wady.  So  I  sent  him  back  with  the  good  news  and 
to  bring  the  camels  on,  and  cantered  on  to  the  hill  to  get  a  better  view. 
From  the  top  of  it  I  saw  everything,  as  I  thought,  clearly,  the  tarfa 


1(897]  Deceived  by  the  Mirage  259 

mounds,  the  dark  green  wady,  and  the  hill,  blue  beyond  —  almost  like 
the  Nile  valley. 

"We  were,  therefore,  in  the  highest  spirits,  and  Suliman  and  the 
camels  having  joined  me  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  and  he  having  also 
climbed  up  and  convinced  himself,  we  went  on  singing  with  joy.  Two 
more  hours,  I  thought,  and  we  should  be  at  the  spring,  and  I  led  the 
way  over  the  intervening  nefuds  gaily.  The  sun  was  in  our  faces  as 
we  topped  the  last  of  them,  and  saw  at  last  the  plain  of  our  hopes 
before  us.  Suliman  and  I  looked  in  each  other's  faces  blankly.  There 
was  nothing  at  all  of  what  we  were  expecting  —  only  another  long, 
low,  shining  plain.  The  tarfa  clumps  had  resolved  themselves  into  as 
many  bare  black  stones,  and  nothing  to  break  the  horizon  but  a  single 
pyramidal  hill  far  away,  a  full  day's  journey  off.  It  was  a  bitter  dis- 
appointment. We  asked  Osman  when  he  arrived  with  the  camels 
whether  he  recognized  the  valley  as  Sittarah,  and  he  said  '  no.'  We 
were  worse  lost  than  before.  Nevertheless,  we  were  convinced  that 
the  valley  must  be  still  before  us,  and  like  an  old  hound  Suliman  ran 
off  to  the  left  casting  for  some  sign  of  it,  and  presently  came,  by  ex- 
traordinary good  fortune,  on  a  track,  and  then  a  mile  or  two  still  farther 
on,  at  the  very  place  where  the  black  stones  were  which  we  had  taken 
for  tarfa  clumps,  to  our  exceeding  joy,  lay  the  great  caravan  road  —  we 
had  not  seen  it  for  two  days  —  running  with  at  least  a  hundred  parallel 
camel  paths  bearing  due  westward.  This,  '  if  not  the  work  of  the  jdn' 
we  know  must  be  our  road.  It  led  straight  to  the  pyramidal  hill,  and 
'  there'  said  Suliman,  '  the  water  will  be.'  So  now  we  are  camped  at 
sunset,  once  more  praising  God  for  his  bounty,  and  in  good  heart  and 
hope.  Old  Beseys  and  all  of  them  had  given  themselves  up  for  lost. 
They  had  made  no  complaint,  but  also  had  made  no  effort  to  find  the 
road,  but  had  ridden  silently  —  Beseys  saying  his  prayers  at  intervals. 
Perhaps  they  were  heard  in  heaven."  [N.B.  What  is  very  remarkable 
in  this  adventure  is  that  both  Suliman  and  I,  he  being  a  master  in  desert 
craft,  having  been  deceived  by  the  mirage,  were  so  not  to  our  own  hurt 
but  to  our  advantage,  for  the  apparent  vegetation  lay  precisely  where 
the  caravan  road  was  emerging  from  the  sand.  The  mirage  in  our  case 
saved  us.  Not  that  we  were  yet  in  great  straits  for  water,  except  for 
the  mare,  for  we  still  had  skins  enough  for  our  own  drinking,  and  the 
weather  was  cold.  But,  if  we  had  failed  to  hit  off  Sittarah  next  day, 
we  should  have  soon  been  in  sorry  plight,  for  Sittarah  is  the  only  water 
between  El  Wah  and  Siwah.  What  makes  travelling  without  guides 
so  dangerous  in  the  western  desert  is  that  the  oases  are  mere  cup-like 
hollows  in  the  plains,  which  one  may  pass  to  right  or  left  of  without  sign 
of  their  being  near.  There  are  almost  no  landmarks  visible  from  the 
plain,  and  the  sands  have  encroached,  obliterating  the  ancient  roads, 
which  are  most  of  them  now  abandoned.  In  former  days  the  oases 


260  A  Desert  Tragedy  [l%97 

must  have  been  all  inhabited,  but  are  not  so  now.  The  sand  drifts  are 
gradually  overwhelming  them.  To  pass  by  one  of  these  and  so  miss  the 
water  is  for  a  caravan  a  terrible  disaster.] 

"  22nd  Feb. —  Close  to  our  encampment  we  found  the  skeletons  of 
two  donkeys,  which  Osman  recognizes  as  connected  with  a  gruesome 
tale.  Last  year  at  El  Wah,  a  witness  being  wanted  in  the  affairs  of  a 
certain  khawajeh,  probably  a  Greek,  who  had  died  there,  the  Egyptian 
authorities,  urged  on  by  an  officer  of  the  Inglis,  sent  to  Siwah  for  the 
man,  who  was  brought  to  El  Wah  with  his  wife  and  his  two  boys. 
These,  when  the  inquiry  was  over,  wanted  to  return,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing that  it  was  summer,  the  man  set  out  for  Siwah  with  his  family,  and 
his  two  donkeys  carrying  jars  of  water  for  the  road.  The  donkeys, 
however,  broke  down  near  Sittarah,  doubtless  here;  the  water  was 
finished,  and  the  father  sent  the  elder  of  the  two  boys  forward  with  a 
jar  to  Sittarah  to  bring  them  water.  On  his  return  the  boy  found  his 
mother  and  his  brother  already  dead  of  thirst,  while  the  father  was  still 
alive.  But  having  drunk,  he  too  died,  and  the  boy  was  left  alone  to 
bury  them  and  tell  the  tale.  We  found  the  graves  by  the  roadside  near 
the  donkey  skeletons.  These,  Osman  says,  were  the  last  who  travelled 
here,  and  it  was  two  years  ago. 

"  As  I  walked  with  Osman  this  morning  he  told  me  the  story,  and 
also  much  about  Burnou  and  Wadai.  There  are  there,  he  assures  me, 
wild  koheyl.  The  Arabs  catch  them  at  their  watering  places  in  pitfalls 
or  traps  which  catch  them  by  the  leg.  They  keep  these  horses  tied  up 
fast  for  three  days,  then  put  bits  into  their  mouths  and  ride  them. 
They  can  go  ten  days  without  water.  This  he  told  me  in  almost  the 
same  words  as  those  used  by  Leo  Africanus  400  years  ago.  I  asked 
about  their  colours,  and  he  said  they  were  bay,  white,  and  dark;  they 
had  long  manes  and  tails ;  some  Arabs  ate  them,  calling  them  halal.  I 
asked  him  about  the  lant  (mentioned  by  Leo  Africanus),  and  he  said, 
'  Oh,  yes  el  ant,'  and  described  it  as  red  (bay)  above  with  a  white  belly 
and  dark  markings  between  the  red  and  the  white,  like  a  gazelle  —  the 
male  alone  with  horns,  big  like^a  cow.  I  am  convinced  this  is  the  Eland 
of  natural  history.  There  are  also  elephants,  lions,  and  giraffes.  The 
elephant  is  half  halal  (permitted  food),  half  haram  (forbidden  food), 
the  fore  toes  halal.  He  has  eaten  the  flesh.  He  described  the  giraffe 
as  a  tall  camel  with  two  small  horns.  The  Falata,  he  said,  hunt  all 
these  —  and  the  gazelle  with  hawks.  They  ride  koheyls  after  the 
ostrich  and  the  lant.  All  this  is  most  interesting.  There  are  also  wild 
asses. 

"All  this  time  we  were  following  the  caravan  road,  and  at  about 
eleven  we  sighted  bushes  —  this  time  real  bushes  —  and  I  galloped  on 
some  three  or  four  miles  to  the  dry  edge  of  the  Lake  of  Sittarah.  It 
lay  exactly  as  Suliman  had  said,  under  the  pyramidal  hill.  This  eastern 


1897]  Finding  Water  in  the  Sand  261 

end  of  the  lake  (which  is  a  salt  lake  and  quite  undrinkable)  is  clearly  a 
paradise  of  wild  beasts.  The  tracks  of  the  ariel  gazelle  were  like  those 
of  a  flock  of  sheep,  and  of  the  hares,  like  those  of  rabbits  at  Newbuild- 
ings  in  the  snow,  round  every  bush.  And  there  were  jackal  tracks,  and 
the  track  of  a  wolf  and  of  a  wild  boar  quite  fresh.  I  was  surprised  to 
find  the  jackal  tracks,  as  I  had  never  seen  them  before  far  from  in- 
habited places.  But  their  being  here  was  later  explained  by  the  dates, 
which  they  doubtless  feed  on.  Of  bushes  I  found  ghurkhud  and  aghur, 
the  latter  always  a  sign  of  former  cultivation,  tamarisks  on  a  mound  or 
two,  and  a  single  palm  bush.  I  should  have  liked  to  encamp  here  on 
the  chance  of  seeing  an  ariel ;  but  it  was  necessary  to  find  the  water 
first.  Osman  could  not  recollect  where  the  spring  was,  except  that  it 
was  under  palms,  and  about  two  miles  farther  on  palms  were  visible. 
So  I  once  more  cantered  on.  The  first  palms  stood  in  a  swamp  near  the 
lake,  just  opposite  the  pyramidal  hill,  with  blue  water  beyond  them  for 
quite  a  mile.  The  swamp,  too,  was  a  main  home  of  the  wild  beasts, 
but  as  yet  I  saw  no  birds.  I  was  driven  out  of  it  by  the  midges  and 
mosquitoes,  which  assailed  me  in  battalions  from  the  reeds,  and  I  was 
glad  to  get  back  to  the  desert  and  wait  there  for  the  camels.  When 
they  arrived  we  all  dispersed  in  search  of  the  spring,  which  Osman 
could  not  find,  examining  palm  clump  after  palm  clump.  At  the  west- 
ern edge  of  the  lake  there  is  no  marsh,  and  the  nefuds  come  down  to 
the  water's  edge  with  only  a  fringe  of  reeds  and  tufts  of  palms,  which 
we  found  covered  with  good  fruit.  Of  these  we  plucked  and  ate.  The 
first  hopeful  sign  of  water  was  when  with  a  rush  and  a  scream  out  of  a 
palm  clump  flew  a  blackbird,  a  real  English  blackbird.  I  had  never 
seen  one  in  the  desert,  or  in  Egypt,  except  in  my  own  garden  of  Sheykh 
Obeyd.  This  was  a  proof  there  must  be  good  water,  and  soon  after 
Suliman  discovered  good  water  by  digging  in  the  sand  to  his  elbow 
at  a  place  which  seemed  frequented,  and  Osman  found  more  under  the 
very  last  palm  of  the  Oasis  westwards.  The  springs  had  been  choked 
with  sand  drift,  but  were  easily  dug  out. 

"  Minshawi,  meanwhile,  had  got  another  supply  from  the  shore  of 
the  lake.  The  lake  itself  is  salt,  like  all  desert  lakes,  but  by  digging  a 
few  yards  away  from  the  edge,  drinkable,  though  brackish,  water  can 
be  had ;  and  of  this  Yemama  drank  her  fill.  She  was  very  thirsty,  as 
yesterday  she  had  been  on  half  rations.  We  all  felt  very  happy,  and 
agreed  to  spend  two  nights  and  enjoy  the  water.  There  is  all  here  a 
man  with  a  few  she-camels  can  require  to  live  on,  good  pasture,  good 
water,  and  good  dates.  The  lake  is  covered  with  flamingos,  and  I  saw 
a  heron  and  heard  wild  geese.  I  think  I  saw  pelicans.  I  also  saw  one 
chrysippHS  butterfly,  but  no  land  bird  except  the  one  blackbird.  It 
would  be  a  paradise  for  a  hermit,  but  for  the  gnats.  These  came  out 
in  swarms  at  sunset,  and  drove  me  out  of  camp,  and  a  mile  away  into  the 


262  The  Sittarah  Oasis 

nefud,  where  I  spent  the  night  alone  with  Suliman  and  our  two  nagas. 
Of  all  the  hermitages  I  have  yet  found  this  is  the  best.  It  is  never 
visited  by  man.  There  are  no  Arabs  anywhere  within  a  hundred  miles, 
and  it  is  very  beautiful  —  a  winter  hermitage,  I  mean,  for  in  summer 
it  must  be  a  furnace.  It  is  hot  even  now. 

"  2yd  Feb. —  After  a  delightful  night  I  walked  at  sunrise  to  the  top 
of  the  highest  nefud,  from  which  the  whole  lake  can  be  seen.  It  is 
very  interesting.  Clearly  the  Oasis  has  been  inhabited,  but  has  been 
overwhelmed  by  the  nefuds  advancing  on  it  from  the  south  and  west. 
The  lake  may  be  seven  miles  long,  and  is  very  beautiful.  The  northern 
shore  is  bounded  by  low  cliffs,  the  ancient  limit  doubtless  of  the  lake, 
which  is  shrinking,  and  will  some  day  be  a  mere  chaos  of  nefud,  as  so 
many  others  are.  It  was  somewhere  in  this  desert,  they  say,  that 
Cambyses  disappeared  with  his  army.  I  can  well  believe  it,  for  we 
were  within  a  little  of  such  a  misfortune  two  days  ago.  If  the  weather 
had  been  less  clear  and  cool  I  could  not  have  seen  the  valley,  and  with 
a  sand  wind  we  might  easily  have  perished.  Now  all  seems  easy  and 
delightful.  In  the  afternoon  I  went  out  for  a  ride,  intending  to  visit 
the  pyramidal  hill,  but  got  into  a  quicksand,  crossing  over  a  half  dry 
arm  of  the  lake,  out  of  which  I  had  some  difficulty  in  dragging  my 
mare.  The  blackbird  I  saw  again  at  the  same  place,  and  a  kestrel.  It 
is  so  hot  to-day  that  I  had  the  tent  pitched  for  a  shade  —  the  first  time 
we  have  used  it,  as  I  sleep  under  my  carpet  shelter.  The  barometer 
shows  the  lake  to  be  120  feet  below  sea  level. 

"  24th  Feb. —  Started  at  sunrise,  believing  our  difficulties  to  be  now 
over,  but  we  took  a  wrong  track,  which  led  us  south-west  instead  of 
farther  north,  towards  some  distant  palms  we  had  sighted  an  hour  after 
leaving.  This  took  us  to  what  I  believe  to  be  the  oasis  of  Bahreyn  — 
at  least  such  an  Oasis  is  marked  on  my  map.  [N.B.  A  very  excellent 
German  map.]  This  Oasis  is  very  like  Sittarah,  though  with  two  lakes 
instead  of  one  —  whence  its  name.  Osman  pronounced  this  to  be 
Araj,  and  said  we  were  now  close  to  Zeytoun  and  Siwah,  which  I  knew 
could  not  be  the  case,  and  was  sure  when  we  came  to  the  second  lake 
it  could  only  be  Bahreyn.  The  road,  too,  westwards,  we  found  blocked 
by  a  great  sebkha  (a  dry  salt  marsh),  and  we  were  obliged  to  turn 
north  and  travel  several  hours  to  recover  the  right  road.  Fortunately 
we  fell  in  soon  with  the  track  of  a  donkey,  and  two  men  who  had  been 
to  the  oasis,  we  think,  to  gather  dates,  a  track  of  about  ten  days  old, 
which  we  followed.  The  barometer  at  Bahreyn  showed  exactly  o° 
above  the  se"a.  The  donkey  track  led  us  to  a  nukbeh,  where  we  fell 
in  with  a  well-marked  road  bearing  north-west  by  north  over  a  plateau 
of  limestone  hillocks,  each  about  ten  feet  high,  like  the  crested  waves 
of  the  British  Channel  in  rough  weather,  with  the  space  between  them 
sand.  The  road  was  carefully  marked  with  rijms  (cairns),  and  easy 


1897]  A  Pitiless  Desert  263 

to  follow,  and  I  cantered  gaily  on  to  find  a  camping  place,  where  we 
now  snugly  are,  screened  from  the  north-east  wind.  It  is  fortunate 
we  found  the  donkey  track,  or  we  might  not  have  hit  off  the  road. 
Yemama  is  now  in  excellent  condition,  and  ate  up  her  two  melwas  of 
corn  during  the  night.  The  camels  were  all  watered  before  starting. 
At  Bahreyn  to-day  I  saw  a  kite  and  a  raven. 

"  I  find  Beseys  is  very  unwilling  now  to  go  to  Jerabub,  being  afraid, 
I  think,  of  displeasing  the  Akhwan.  We  have  agreed  to  find  out  at 
Zeytoun  or  Siwah  whether  Abu  Seyf  is  at  Jerabub  or  not,  and  to  pass 
by  without  alighting  if  he  should  be  absent. 

"  2$th  Feb. —  To-day  we  are  in  a  worse  plight  than  ever.  We  started 
very  early,  taking  up  our  path  of  yesterday,  which  brought  us  in  a 
couple  of  hours  to  the  end  of  the  limestone  plain,  and  to  my  great  de- 
light to  the  edge  of  a  new  and  very  deep  oasis  which  I  knew  must  be 
the  Ara.j  we  were  looking  for.  Araj  has  no  lake,  only  a  little  standing 
water  and  a  tamarisk  marsh.  But  a  vast  number  of  palms  are  scat- 
tered over  a  wide  basin  with  many  isolated  clumps,  very  beautiful,  in 
the  sand.  It  was  no  case  here  of  the  nefud  having  destroyed  the  vil- 
lages, as  in  the  other  oases,  but  of  abandonment,  one  cannot  say  why. 
There  are  palms  enough  left  to  support  many  villages.  The  cliffs  here 
are  on  the  south  and  west  sides,  the  sand  slopes  on  the  north  and  east. 
Still  on  the  track  of  the  donkey  and  the  two  men  we  chevied  along  the 
edge  of  the  jungle  north  westwards,  the  ground  covered  with  the  tracks 
of  gazelles,  hares,  and  jackals.  Of  birds  I  saw  only  three,  mourning 
chats,  black  with  white  beaks  and  rumps  —  nothing  else  alive.  The 
depth  of  the  oasis  puzzled  my  barometer.  It  must  be  about  150  feet 
below  the  sea.  From  the  bottom  the  track  led  up  by  some  clumps  of 
palms,  where  I  am  sure  there  must  be  water  underground,  across  deep 
ncfuds  to  the  opposite  nukbe  marked  by  some  wonderful  rocks  —  one 
quite  square,  white  as  marble,  and  with  curious  architectural  markings, 
another  like  a  tall  chessman,  both  100  feet  high  at  least,  their  tops  level 
with  the  plain  above,  a  splendid  hermitage  where  one  might  find  shade 
and  shelter  at  all  hours  and  in  every  weather.  They  are  geologically  of 
limestone,  with  layers  of  shells,  their  tops  black,  like  lava.  One  layer 
of  the  chessman,  one  of  those  round  white  flakes,  Suliman  calls  dirahem 
(money).  This  place  was  the  wildest,  the  most  romantic,  the  most 
supernatural  in  its  natural  structure  I  have  ever  seen,  an  abode  of  all 
the  fan. 

"  I  cantered  up  the  sand  slope  to  the  top  of  the  pass,  elated  at  having 
found  Araj  corresponding  so  well  with  my  map,  and  being  in  front 
forgot  to  give  orders  for  water  to  be  looked  for,  and  the  girbehs  filled. 
Hence  our  present  trouble.  For  on  gaining  the  upper  plain,  instead  of 
the  well-marked  track  we  had  expected,  we  found  nothing  but  a  wind- 
swept plateau  of  ncfud  interspersed  with  mounds  of  stone,  where  the 


264  We  Are  in  a  Miserable  Plight  [l&97 

donkey  track  speedily  disappeared  or  was  lost,  nor  could  we  ever  again 
find  it.  We  were  left  now  to  our  sole  wits  and  the  mercy  of  God,  for 
the  wind  was  blowing  hard  from  the  north-east  and  was  drifting  the 
sand  hopelessly.  Suliman,  now  in  command,  recommended  descending 
towards  some  hills  to  the  north-west,  and  this  brought  us  to  a  new 
formation  of  limestone  ground,  arranged  in  flat  masses  with  sharp 
edges,  the  most  abominable  imaginable  interspersed  with  sand.  Across 
this  we  floundered  with  our  camels  for  several  hours,  when  Suliman, 
having  climbed  to  the  top  .f  a  low  tell,  announced  that  he  had  seen  a 
valley  with  palms,  and  it  was  resolved,  much  against  old  Osman's  wish, 
that  we  should  cross  the  whole  valley  on  the  chance  of  striking  a  track 
near  the  hills.  The  trend  of  the  valley  was  westwards,  and  if  it  was 
the  beginning  of  the  Siwah  valley,  Suliman  argued,  it  must  have  a 
road  passing  up  it.  So  Suliman  and  I  went  scouting  with  the  tall  but- 
tresses of  a  crag  to  west-north-west  for  our  object.  Now  we  have  al- 
most reached  these,  but  have  found  no  sign  of  road  or  life  —  only  a 
poor  wagtail  lost  in  the  strong  wind.  We  have  camped  for  the  night, 
feeling  ourselves  to  be  out  of  all  reckoning  (for  this  according  to  the 
map  should  have  been  the  Siwah  valley,  yet  it  is  absolutely  without  trace 
of  human  passage,  old  or  new).  We  are  camped  in  a  hollow  near  two 
seyyal  trees,  ill  screened  from  the  wind,  and  in  very  miserable  plight. 

"  26th  Feb. —  I  spent  a  restless,  uncomfortable  night,  disturbed  at 
finding  that  of  our  five  water  skins  three  were  already  empty,  and  re- 
proaching myself  with  having  let  the  men  pass  Araj  without  replenish- 
ing. I  felt  myself  responsible,  too,  from  having  taken  the  direction  of 
our  route  out  of  Osman's  hands.  Old  Beseys  and  the  rest,  except  my 
own  Bedouins,  were  clearly  of  opinion  that  I  was  wrong.  The  wind, 
too,  raged  furiously,  and  kept  me  waking,  and  in  the  darkness  I  im- 
agined all  kinds  of  disaster,  more  especially  when  I  found  the  stars 
overhead  obscured  with  drifting  sand.  I  said  prayers  to  all  my  saints 
and  repented  of  my  sins,  and  so  I  think  did  all  the  party.  Once  in  the 
night  the  sky  cleared  and  I  got  a  sight  of  the  Pole  Star  and  made  a 
line  on  the  ground  with  my  camel  stick  as  a  guide  in  the  morning,  for 
my  pocket  compass  is  out  of  order  and  cannot  be  relied  on.  There  were 
even  moments  when  I  thought  gloomily  of  ordering  a  retreat  to  Araj. 

"  In  the  morning,  however,  more  courageous  counsels  prevailed,  and 
we  took  our  due  course  west  towards  the  khusm  (the  headland)  deter- 
mined to  go  straight  forward  and  solve  the  question  of  this  being  the 
Siwah  valley  or  no.  Nor  were  we  long  in  suspense.  We  had  hardly 
gone  a  mile  when,  riding  in  front,  I  came  upon  a  little  single  path  lead- 
ing to  some  seyyal  trees  which  had  been  pollarded  by  Bedouins,  a  sign 
of  human  neighbourhood,  and  presently,  to  my  delight,  to  the  old  cara- 
van road,  reappearing  plain  and  unmistakable.  It  relieved  us  from  all 
anxiety,  and  following  it  we  found  ourselves  by  mid-day  at  the  first 


1897]  The  Senussi  Monastery  at  Zeytoun  265 

bushes  of  the  Siwah  oasis."  [N.B.  It  is  well  here  to  note,  as  a  gen- 
eral rule  of  travelling  in  the  desert  without  guides  that,  when  looking 
for  a  lost  camel  track  or  road,  there  is  more  chance  of  rinding  it  at  the 
point  of  a  headland  in  the  wady  than  elsewhere,  for  the  reason  that  it 
is  there  that  the  shortest  cut  would  be  made  in  rounding  a  trend  of  the 
hills.  This  justified  Suliman  in  making  for  the  khustn  yesterday.] 
"  Soon  afterwards  we  came  to  sebkhas,  where  there  were  tracks  of 
many  pasturing  camels,  and  then  within  sight  of  the  oasis  of  Zeytoun 
and  the  Senussi  Zaghwiyeh  standing  on  high  ground  a  mile  or  more 
from  its  palm  trees.  As  it  was  near  sunset  we  resolved  to  rest  here  and 
have  made  a  pleasant  camp  under  some  ghurkhud  bushes.  El  hamdul 
Illah. 

"  2jth  Feb. —  In  half  an  hour  from  leaving  camp  we  came  to  the 
Zaghwiyeh,  and  Yemama  started  at  the  sight  of  strange  human  beings, 
the  first  she  had  seen  since  leaving  El  Wah,  who  came  out  to  receive  us. 
These  were  servants  and  slaves  of  the  monastery,  and  we  were  shown 
by  them  the  well  where  we  watered  mare  and  camels  —  a  small  well 
just  outside  the  buildings.  These  were  not  different  from  an  ordinary 
small  village,  a  score  of  low  square  houses  with  a  mosque  attached. 
The  servants  may  have  been  half-a-dozen  or  more,  an  unhandsome  set 
of  men,  especially  those  of  the  Siwah  type,  which  is  one  of  the  ugliest  in 
the  world,  yellow  skinned,  brown  haired,  snub  nosed,  hare-lipped  and 
light  eyed  (such  one  imagines  the  Huns  to  have  been).  In  marked 
contrast  to  them  was  the  '  brother,'  who  came  out  presently  to  entertain 
us,  an  Arab  of  the  Western  type,  not  unlike  my  friend  Abdallah 
Mijower,  with  a  singularly  pleasant  smile.  One  could  imagine  him 
having  great  influence  with  the  people.  He  had  a  look  of  goodness 
which  could  not  be  mistaken.  His  name,  he  told  us,  was  Sidi  Hamid 
of  the  Mujabara  tribe  of  Aujla.  He  has  with  him  only  one  fellow 
brother,  a  Siwan,  inferior  to  him  in  every  way.  He  gave  us  all  the 
news  of  the  brotherhood,  how  that,  after  Sidi  Sherif's  death,  Sidi  Abu 
Seyf  had  also  died,  leaving  Sidi  el  Medani  head  of  the  community  at 
Jerabub.  He  said  we  should  have  no  difficulty  in  our  journey  to  Ben- 
ghazi. It  was  four  easy  days  to  Jerabub,  and  from  thence  we  could 
go  straight  to  Bir  Menus  in  nine  days,  with  one  water  on  the  sixth  day. 
He  would  like  to  go  with  us  himself.  He  was  very  kind  to  me,  and 
though  he  did  not  eat  with  us,  it  being  Ramadan,  he  gave  me  some  good 
gazali  dates  and  some  pomegranates,  and  milk  and  dates  to  the  servants, 
who  were  not  fasting.  Then  he  called  his  fellow  brother  Mohammed, 
and  they  recited  a  fatha  for  our  safe  journey,  all  standing  together  out- 
side the  monastery,  and  we  went  much  pleased  on  our  way. 

"  Old  Beseys  tells  me  it  is  their  practice  to  entertain  all  comers  for 
two  nights  with  milk  and  dates  —  otherwise  to  occupy  themselves  only 
with  prayer  and  the  superintending  of  the  palm  cultivation.  (Cardinal 


266  We  Camp  South  of  Siwah  Town  [l&97 

Lavigerie's  White  Fathers  imitated  in  this  their  way  of  life.)  One 
might  do  worse  in  the  world  than  be  a  Senussi  brother.  Every  difficulty 
seems  now  to  be  in  the  way  of  solution.  Beseys  is  confident  of  ac- 
complishing our  journey  by  Jerabub  to  Benghazi. 

"  Thus  we  travelled  till  four  o'clock,  when  we  reached  the  first  iso- 
lated garden  outside  Siwah,  where  Beseys  found  a  friend,  who  invited 
us  to  stay  with  him,  and  we  should  have  done  well  to  accept,  and  pres- 
ently we  encamped  for  the  night  just  outside  the  Eastern  town,  of  the 
two  of  which  Siwah  is  composed,  half  a  mile  away  south  of  it  in  the 
sand  among  some  groups  of  palms. 

"  2&th  Feb. —  A  day  of  disaster.  Last  night  after  dark,  Mohammed 
Sai'd,  Omdeh  of  the  Eastern  town,  came  out  to  see  us;  a  fat,  well- 
dressed,  dark-faced  man  whom  Suliman  pronounced  to  be  '  a  splendid 
prince.'  We  had  bought  a  lamb  (for  Sheykh  Obeyd),  and  Suliman 
cooked  it  for  us,  and  Mohammed  Said  ate  of  it  largely  with  a  friend 
and  he  had  just  got  up  to  say  good-night  and  go,  having  promised  us 
a  guide  and  all  we  wanted  for  next  day,  when  we  saw  lights  coming, 
and  a  number  of  persons,  horse  and  foot,  and  the  word  passed  that  it 
was  the  hakim  (government  representative),  a  maown  (police  officer), 
the  chief  man  being  away  at  Skanderia.  He  was  polite  and  amiable, 
a  slender  man  with  no  palate  to  his  mouth,  speaking  almost  in  a 
whisper,  and  with  him  a  number  of  Siwans  who,  as  I  understand  now, 
were  Sheykhs  of  the  Western  town.  These  all  sat  down,  and  I,  too, 
was  obliged  to  stay  out  their  visit  while  coffee  was  being  made.  Old 
Beseys,  as  his  way  is,  made  most  of  the  conversation,  and  he  began  very 
imprudently  to  tell  them  we  intended  going  to  Benghazi.  The  sheykhs, 
upon  this,  became  curious  and  inquisitive.  Old  Beseys  strung  tales  of 
my  being  from  Nejd,  and  I  was  obliged  to  join  in  to  the  extent  of  saying 
that  I  was  from  beyond  Sham  (Damascus),  between  Sham  and  Bagdad, 
and  my  name  Sakr.  They  were  curious  to  know  my  business,  but  I 
answered  vaguely,  also  as  to  our  road.  I  did  not  for  a  moment  suppose 
there  was  anything  hostile  in  their  intention,  and  they  drank  their  coffee 
and  said  good  night  amiably  enough,  the  only  disagreeable  incident  being 
that  during  the  night  a  thief  came  to  my  tent  and  stole  away  my  carpet 
shelter,  which  I  had  used  to  seat  my  visitors  upon  outside.  It  had  been 
carelessly  put  back  at  the  door  of  the  tent,  and  the  night  was  one  for 
thieves,  being  without  -a  moon.  I  was  awoke  out  of  my  sleep  by  Suli- 
man's  shout,  who  had  seen  the  thief  stealing  away  between  the  palms, 
but  too  late  to  stop  him  with  his  prize.  I  was  put  out  at  this  and  all 
the  more  resolved  to  move  away  early  —  Mohammed  Said  had  sug- 
gested it  —  to  another  place  '  near  his  castle.'  This  castle  was  barely 
half  a  mile  away  (to  the  west),  a  country  house  built  upon  a  rock,  and 
we  accordingly  moved  camp  by  daylight  and  pitched  the  tent  a  hundred 
yards  from  the  house  on  open  ground. 


1897]  We  Are  Attacked  by  the  Siwcms  267 

"  I  had  just  settled  that  the  servants  were  to  go  to  town  to  buy  what 
we  wanted  when  Suliman  came  to  my  tent  to  tell  me  of  an  armed  party 
approaching  from  the  town  towards  us,  and  that  we  ought  to  get  our 
guns  ready.  I  loaded  my  gun,  and  then  looked  through  my  glass,  and 
saw  in  fact  a  little  army,  some  200  men,  on  horse  and  on  foot  (and 
with  camels),  advancing  from  the  Western  town,  which,  though  evi- 
dently armed,  I  could  not  believe  had  any  intention  hostile  to  ourselves. 
The  servants  were  for  flight  with  the  camels,  and  old  Beseys  and  Salem 
and  the  younger  Arabs  disappeared.  Only  Suliman  and  the  good  old 
slave  Osman  stayed  with  me,  and,  seeing  it  was  absurd  to  think  of 
defence,  I  told  them  to  put  up  their  weapons,  and  sat  down  again  in 
my  tent  waiting  the  event.  Presently  the  Siwans  arrived,  and  I  heard 
them  call  out  '  Salaam  aleykum,'  and  '  aman,'  and  supposed  it  to  be  all 
right.  But  half  a  minute  after  I  found  myself  surrounded  by  a  number 
of  men,  mostly  Soudanis,  who  were  pulling  the  tent  over  my  ears.  On 
seeing  me  sitting  there,  they  rushed  forward  and  caught  hold  of  me  by 
the  wrists  and  pulled  me  to  my  feet.  I  expostulated  with  them,  and 
they  became  more  violent,  and  though  I  made  no  defence  except  in 
words  one  of  them  struck  me  a  blow  on  the  side  of  the  netk  and  others 
began  to  try  and  pull  my  clothes  off  me,  others  pointed  guns  and  pistols 
at  me,  and  there  was  a  vast  hubbub  and  confusion,  one  dragging  me  one 
way  and  another  another.  I  received  several  blows  on  the  head  and 
one  from  some  weapon  on  the  cheek.  All  I  could  make  out  of  their 
cries  (for  there  was  an  immense  uproar  and  they  were  shouting  the 
most  part  in  a  language  —  Berberi  —  I  did  not  understand),  was  some- 
thing about  Sidi-el-Mahdi. 

"  There  were  half-a-dozen  sheykhs  on  horseback,  with  an  old  white- 
bearded  man  brandishing  a  drawn  sword,  others  with  blunderbusses  and 
every  kind  of  impossible  weapon.  I  recognized  in  them  several  of 
those  who  had  drunk  coffee  with  us  the  night  before.  My  captors 
hustled  me  towards  the  town,  tearing  me  nearly  in  pieces  in  their  desire 
to  get  my  pistol  from  my  belt,  which  at  last  they  tore  away.  The 
sheykhs  on  horseback  were  evidently  in  direction  of  the  whole  affair. 
I  had  lost  sight  of  Suliman  and  the  slave  Osman,  but  I  heard  after- 
wards that  they,  too,  were  considerably  knocked  about.  I  received  a 
rather  nasty  blow  on  the  nape  of  the  neck  and  another  with  some 
weapon  on  my  cheek  bone,  but  neither  very  serious,  and,  not  being 
really  hurt,  I  managed  to  keep  my  temper.  The  sheykhs  made  no  effort 
to  protect  me  in  any  way;  but,  when  they  had  got  my  pistol,  my  as- 
sailants left  me  more  or  less  alone,  as  there  was  a  general  rush  to  pillage 
the  baggage.  Fortunately  the  leather  bags  with  spring  locks  were  a 
puzzle  to  them,  and  they  could  not  tear  them  open.  But  I  had  no 
leisure  to  attend  to  this,  and  my  captors  marched  me  off  towards  the 
town,  every  now  and  then  having  a  drag  at  my  cloak  or  my  hezam 


268  /  Am  Brought  Prisoner  into  Siwah 

(girdle);  'el  dirahem,  el  dirahem!'  ('the  drachmas,  the  money!') 
they  shouted ;  '  you  have  a  thousand  ?  you  have  two  thousand  ?  ' 

"  At  last  a  man,  with  a  better  face  than  most,  came  up  to  me,  and  I 
made  myself  his  dahil  (according  to  the  Arab  formula,  'ana  dahilak' 
by  seizing  his  cloak,  an  act  of  surrender),  and  he  took  me  to  join  a 
second  body  which  had  been  waiting  behind  the  first,  and  some  of  these 
threw  their  cloaks  over  my  head  to  protect  me  from  further  blows.  It 
was  a  rabble  rout  as  ever  was  seen,  and  they  marched  me  to  the  town, 
where  the  women  were  all  shrilling  their  triumph  (ulu-lu-lu-lu)  from 
every  housetop.  I  did  not  know  in  the  least  what  it  was  about  or  what 
they  intended,  but  they  seemed  all  very  angry,  and  at  times  I  thought 
they  meant  to  kill  me.  But,  strangely  enough,  I  was  not  at  all  fright- 
ened, and  felt  interested  in  it  all  almost  as  a  spectator."  [The  truth 
is  it  was  a  very  lovely  morning,  the  air  sparkling  and  clear,  and  the 
whole  thing,  with  its  almost  mediaeval  and  quite  barbaric  costuming  and 
Staging,  was  more  like  a  pageant  than  a  reality,  so  that  it  seemed  diffi- 
cult to  realize  that  it  was  quite  in  earnest ;  nor  had  I  time  to  think  much 
or  consider  what  it  meant.] 

"  Arrived  inside  the  town,  I  was  marched  to  an  open  space  where 
there  were  two  erections  not  unlike  gallows,  and  for  a  moment  I 
thought  that  I  was  perhaps  to  be  hanged.  All  I  could  imagine  in  ex- 
planation of  the  affair  was  that  some  revolution  had  broken  out  in 
which  I  was  accidentally  involved.  But  we  did  not  stop  at  the  gallows, 
and  presently  I  was  bidden  inside  a  house  and  up  a  stair  which  led  to  a 
nice  open  room  with  mastabahs  (seats)  and  a  pleasant  outlook  to  the 
north.  This  proved  to  be  the  mejliss  (council  chamber)  of  the  Sheykhs 
of  the  Gharbieh  (western  town),  and  there  we  sat  down.  I  took  the 
best  place,  and  called  for  water,  which  was  brought ;  and  a  great  talk 
began  among  the  Sheykhs,  who  were  now  by  way  of  protecting  me. 
Having  drunk  and  recovered  my  breath,  I  asked  them  the  reason  of  all 
their  wrath,  and  of  the  attack  made  on  me,  but  could  get  no  intelligible 
answer  except  that  the  Maown  was  coming.  I  explained  that  I  was  a 
person  well  known  at  Cairo  and  a  friend  of  Effendina's  (the  Khe- 
dive's). But  they  said  they  knew  nothing  of  Effendina  —  they  had  a 
government  of  their  own,  and  that  I  should  go  to  the  diwan  (govern- 
ment house).  Soon  after  the  Maown  arrived.  He  had  made  me  the 
kindly  offer  of  his  services  last  night,  and  I  now  whispered  to  him  that 
I  was  an  Englishman.  This  made  him  still  more  courteous,  and  I  think, 
poor  man,  he  did  all  he  could  to  set  things  right,  with  considerable  tact, 
too.  And,  as  things  went  on  better,  I  whispered  the  same  intelligence 
also  to  one  of  the  sheykhs  who  sat  next  me,  and  with  the  same  good 
effect.  There  was  now  a  great  hurry  to  restore  the  plunder,  and  most 
of  the  things  taken  were  by  degrees  brought  in,  the  chief  losses  being 
two  of  my  three  guns,  and  my  good  Persian  sword  (the  sword  Moham- 


1897]  Lodged  in  the  Diwan  269 

med  Ibn  Aruk  of  Tadmor  had  given  me),  also  my  little  store  of  gold 
—  £29  had  been  abstracted  from  my  small  red  bag,  which  must  have 
been  done  by  the  sheykhs  themselves,  for  the  silver  had  been  left,  and 
certainly  the  common  plunderers  would  have  left  nothing.  And  so, 
little  by  little,  matters  cleared.  The  Maown  brought  water,  and  him- 
self washed  my  cheeks  from  the  blood,  and  a  katib  (scribe)  having  ar- 
rived, I  dictated  a  statement  of  the  case,  though  I  don't  think  it  was 
signed  by  any  one. 

"  After  this,  my  servants  one  by  one  appeared  all  with  tales  of  the 
losses,  and  Suliman  and  Osman  of  their  bruises  —  and  we  were  escorted 
by  the  Maown  to  the  diwan,  which  is  the  general  Government  House  of 
Siwah.  Here  we  now  are,  in  not  uncomfortable  quarters  upstairs,  with 
several  mud-built  rooms  and  a  nice  roof  top.  The  camels  are  below 
in  a  great  yard ;  and  after  all  the  trouble  nothing  serious  has  really  hap- 
pened. Only  it  is  clear  our  onward  journey  is  stopped.  Our  money 
and  our  arms  are  gone,  and  there  is  a  general  demoralization  among  the 
servants.  Salem  is  thoroughly  frightened  and  has  given  warning,  and 
the  others  all  declare  for  an  immediate  return  by  Alexandria.  So  here 
my  expedition  ends.  The  timid  Beseys,  it  turns  out,  ran  away  to  his 
friend  Mohammed  Said  at  the  first  news  of  the  approaching  army,  and 
came  late,  on  the  Maown's  summons,  to  the  mejliss,  where  the  Sheykhs 
set  upon  him,  excusing  themselves  for  the  attack  by  laying  it  on  Beseys' 
assurance  to  them  that  I  was  this  that  and  the  other;  and,  indeed,  I 
think  it  has  been  mainly  his  fault.  It  was  quite  unnecessary  for  him 
to  talk  about  my  going  to  Benghazi  to  anybody  but  Mohammed  Said ; 
and  I  am  not  sure  Jie  had  not  talked  also  about  the  road  to  Jerabiib. 
Still  we  must  be  thankful  for  small  mercies,  and  it  has  all  been  in  the 
way  of  the  adventure  I  was  seeking.  None  of  us  is  hurt,  and  for  the 
small  losses  I  shall  make  the  Egyptian  Government  responsible.  They 
should  either  give  up  holding  Siwah  or  keep  order  here.  As  it  is,  the 
Maown,  poor  man,  is  powerless.  He  told  me  his  sorrows  to-night.  He 
has  been  twelve  years  here,  on  £7  a  month,  and  has  but  six  men  under 
him  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace,  four  of  whom  are  disabled  by 
fever,  and  he  himself  suffers  from  it.  His  second  in  command  is  dying 
of  consumption,  and  spits  blood  continually.  His  superior,  the  Mamur, 
at  £25  a  month,  has  just  been  recalled,  and  I  think  he  cannot  read  or 
write.  His  bashkatib,  chief  secretary,  is  down  with  fever,  and  the 
second,  too,  is  sick. 

"  ist  ^larch. —  Things  look  pleasanter  this  morning.  It  is  arranged 
that  we  are  to  leave  to-morrow  with  a  messenger  the  Maown  is  sending 
to  Alexandria  with  the  news  of  our  adventure.  We  shall  take  the 
northern  road  by  Akabah  and  the  sea  coast.  Last  night  was  a  noisy 
one,  of  chaunting  and  processions,  as  Ramadan  is  ending.  [N.B.  The 
diwan  overlooked  the  great  square  of  the  mosque,  which  was  crowded 


270  Causes  of  the  Attack  [1897 

all  night  with  a  multitude  of  devotees,  and  a  wild  concourse  of  Oulad 
Ali  Bedouins  who  had  come  in  to  Siwah  from  the  north  and  west  to  buy 
dates  and  attend  the  coming  festival.  The  Oulad  Ali  are  all  more  or 
less  adherents  of  the  Senussia,  and  what  may  truly  be  called  '  fanatic- 
ism/ was  rampant  among  them.  It  was  a  curious  and  impressive  sight, 
and  cannot  have  been  very  different  from  the  condition  of  things  at 
Omdurman  and  el  Obeyd  in  the  time  of  the  Mahdi.  At  midnight  and 
again  at  the  hour  of  the  morning  prayer  a  gong  was  sounded,  apparently 
by  the  blows  repeated  singly  of  an  iron  hammer,  with  the  effect  of  a 
series  of  sharp  reports  like  those  of  a  rifle,  sharp  and  penetrating,  fol- 
lowed by  the  call  to  prayer  splendidly  chaunted  by  the  mueddhin,  and 
then  a  general  chaunting  maintained  for  an  hour  or  more,  wild  and 
menacing  as  anything  to  be  heard  in  the  world.]  The  best  explanation 
of  the  attack  made  on  me  is  Ramadan.  The  Siwans  are  mad  with  it. 
Beseys  tells  me  the  Akhwan  took  part  in  yesterday's  affair.  It  is  quite 
likely.  Others  say  it  is  on  account  of  our  having  gone  on  arrival  to 
Mohammed  Said,  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  opposite  faction,  that  of  the 
Eastern  town.  But  I  think  plunder  had  not  a  little  to  do  with  it,  and 
the  recklessness  which  Ramadan  brings.  Certainly  the  whole  of  the 
Gharbieh  town  was  concerned  in  the  attack.  I  regret  it  as  upsetting  my 
plans  for  the  Jebel  Akhdar,  but  it  cannot  be  helped.  It  may  serve  as  a 
useful  instruction  as  to  this  western  Islam  of  which  I  had  hoped  some- 
thing. If  the  condition  of  Siwah  is  all  the  fruit  the  Senussia  has  to 
show,  the  tree  can  be  but  little  worth. 

"  2nd  March. —  The  day  has  passed  in  going  to  and  fro  on  the  part 
of  the  Maown  to  arrange  matters  for  our  start  to-morrow.  They  have 
imposed  two  khabirs  (guides)  on  us,  one  from  each  village,  for  whom 
I  am  to  pay  £4  each.  This  will  leave  me  with  only  fifteen  reals  and  a 
piastre,  all  counted.  The  Sheykh  of  the  Gharbieh,  who  is  chief  guar- 
antor in  the  transaction,  is  the  same  who  led  the  attack  on  us  yesterday. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  prime  movers  in  the  affair  were  the  Akh- 
wan. Some  say  that  Mohammed,  the  Siwahi  brother  who  recited  the 
prayer  with  us  at  Zeytoun,  followed  us  on  his  white  donkey,  and  that 
he  was  the  cause  of  the  night  visit  paid  us,  and  the  questions  asked  of 
us  as  to  our  projected  journey.  The  Sheykh  of  the  Western  town  led 
the  ghazu,  but  the  men  who  first  attacked  me  were,  I  am  sure,  slaves 
of  the  Akhwan.  I  remember  among  their  cries  when  they  struck  me 
with  the  gun,  '  ya  kelb,  la  te  fut  and  Sidi  el  Mahdi.'  Indeed  it  was  all 
done  in  the  name  of  Sidi  el  Mahdi.  Now  old  Beseys  says  he  recognized 
one  of  the  Akhwan  as  leader  in  the  attack. 

"Of  the  Sheykhs  there  were  three  prominent  leaders,  Othman  Hab- 
bun,  the  old  man  with  the  naked  sword  (this  I  believe  to  have  been 
Hassuna) ,  and  the  young  dark  man  with  the  prominent  eyes,  who  after- 
wards sat  next  me  at  the  mejliss,  Mohammed  Kuli.  All  these  three 


1897]  The  Blame  Laid  on  Hassuna  271 

were  on  horseback.  I  am  certain,  too,  that  the  gold  stolen  from  the 
red  bag  was  taken,  not  in  the  general  plunder,  but  afterwards  —  this 
uecause  the  bag,  though  not  locked,  was  shut  with  a  spring,  and  if  the 
plunderers  had  got  it  open  they  would  not  have  left  the  silver  or  the 
pistol,  both  of  which  were  inside.  I  suspect  it  was  Othman  took  it. 
Beseys  says  that  the  arms  are  in  his  hands  and  in  those  of  the  Akhwan. 
The  name  of  the  man  who  first  protected  me  is  Abu  Bekr  Mohammed 
Daoud,  and  another  was  Mohammed  Mansur,  Hassan  Mansur's 
brother,  on  whom  they  now  lay  all  the  blame.  Mohammed  Kuli  was 
among  the  advanced  riders.  1  consider  Abdallah  Homeydeh  among  the 
most  responsible  of  the  second  division.  The  three  commanders  of  the 
advanced  party  are  then  —  Othman  Habbun,  the  worst,  Hassuna,  and 
Mohammed  Kuli.  It  was  Mohammed  Kuli,  I  think,  who  pointed  the 
pistol  at  my  head.  They  lay  all  the  blame  on  Hassuna  now,  who  they 
say  is  asi  (in  rebellion)  against  the  Government,  and  has  possession  of 
my  sword  and  guns. 

"  Othman  has  been  to  see  me  and  has  brought  back  the  money,  or 
rather  its  equivalent  of  ten  sovereigns  and  twenty-five  bintos.  The 
Sheykhs  of  the  Gharbieh  have  all  been  with  me,  talking,  and  are  now 
polite  enough  and  anxious  their  quarrel  with  me  should  be  settled ;  and 
I  have  used  a  little  siasa  with  them,  acquiescing  in  their  view  of  Has- 
suna's  sole  guilt.  They  have  asked  me  to  get  him  removed  by  the 
Government  as  a  mischief  maker.  It  was  Abdallah  Homeydeh  who 
made  the  remark  in  the  mejliss  '  We  know  nothing  of  Effendina.  We 
have  a  government  of  our  own.' "  [N.B.  I  am  sorry  not  to  have 
noted  more  in  my  journal  of  these  Sheykhs'  conversation,  for  much  of 
it  was  interesting  as  connected  with  the  affairs  of  the  Senussia.  I 
found  Othman  Habbun  by  far  the  most  able  man  among  them,  a  strong, 
capable  rogue.  The  rest  were  very  poor  creatures,  some  of  them  of 
the  most  degraded  physical  type  I  have  ever  come  across,  and  appar- 
ently without  those  sentiments  of  honour  most  Arabs  pretend  to  even 
if  they  are  without  them.  The  Siwahi  are,  however,  no  real  Arabs,  but 
men  of  very  mixed  origin  with  much  negro  blood,  and  apparently  some 
northern  blood  too,  for  there  were  individuals  with  yellow  faces,  pale 
eyes,  and  tow-coloured  hair.  They  are  probably  descended  from  the 
criminals  formerly  sent  here  in  Roman  and  later  times,  for  Siwah  was 
a  convict  settlement.] 

"  3-3°- —  I  nave  nad  a  last  talk  with  Huseyn  Effendi,  the  Maown,  and 
have  learned  several  things  from  him.  Othman  Habbun  is  no  other, 
he  tells  me,  than  the  Wakil  of  the  Akhwan  at  Siwah.  This  explains  the 
whole  affair,  and  it  is  on  him  and  the  Akhwan  that  the  whole  responsibil- 
ity of  the  attack  rests.  He  is  now  anxious  not  to  compromise  the 
Senussia  with  the  Government,  and  represents  Hassuna  as  the  danger- 
ous man,  making  him  scapegoat  in  his  place.  Hassuna  is  Sidi  el  Mahdi's 


272  We  Leave  for  the  Nile 

strongest  adherent  in  Siwah,  an^  if  the  Government  attempts  to  arrest 
him,  he  will  doubtless  fly  and  take  refuge  with  the  Sidi,  as  he  did  once 
before  in  the  Khedive  Tewfik's  time.  I  am  tired  of  waiting  here,  but 
the  delay  has  been  fruitful  in  the  knowledge  I  have  acquired.  It  is  an 
experience  not,  I  think,  bought  too  dear. 

"  yd  March. —  Got  away  at  last  from  Siwah,  accompanied  by  the 
Maown  on  his  white  donkey  and  our  four  chief  adversaries  on  horse- 
bask,  Othman  Habbun  (Wakil  Sidi  el  Mahdi),  Mohammed  Mansur 
(Hassuna's  brother),  Mohammed  Kuli,  and  Abdallah  Homeydeh. 
They  were  riding  wretched  underbred  mares  of  which  they  professed 
themselves  proud.  But  Othman  cast  envious  eyes  on  Yemama,  who 
was  fresh  with  her  rest  and  full  of  spirits. 

"  I  have  promised  the  Maown  to  try  and  get  him  named  Mamur.  He 
says  that  with  twenty-five  men  and  a  small  cannon  he  could  manage  the 
town  —  and  I  think  he  could  if  Othman  were  removed.  He  is  the  only 
dangerous  one  of  the  lot,  as  he  is  intelligent,  unscrupulous,  and  bold. 
The  Senussia  in  these  oasis  towns  is  a  mere  madness  and  ought  to  be 
suppressed.  It  is,  all  the  same,  picturesque  and  interesting.  I  have 
slept  the  last  two  nights  on  the  housetop,  and  the  midnight  call  to  prayer 
is  the  most  impressive  thing  I  ever  heard.  The  town  guards  call  their 
watchword,  which  is  answered  all  over  the  town.  Then  the  drum  is 
struck,  in  sound  like  the  sharp  crack  of  a  rifle,  I  —  2,  3  —  i  —  2,  3  — 
i  —  2,  3.  Then,  after  an  interval,  the  mueddhin  chaunts.  Till  mid- 
night the  whole  town  is  silent  —  dead  silent  —  there  are  no  dogs  at 
Siwah  except  those  brought  in  by  the  Bedouins.  But  afterwards  there 
are  intervals  of  watch  calling  and  prayers  till  daybreak. 

"  The  four  Sheykhs  got  off  their  horses  at  the  outskirts  of  the  oasis 
gardens  and  were  wishing  us  good-bye,  when  Mohammed  Said  ap- 
peared in  the  distance.  '  I  think  he  is  not  of  your  friends/  I  said. 
'  We  are  all  friends  here,'  they  answered,  laughing.  '  Fi  aman  Illah,' 
said  Othman.  '  Salaam  aleykum,'  I  answered,  and  he,  '  Aleykum  es 
salaam.'  Mohammed  Said  then  rode  up.  He  talked  of  riding  farther 
with  us,  but  I  would  not  allow  it.  He  proved  useless  to  us  at  the 
pinch,  and  he  only  compromises  us  now.  The  little  Maown  I  parted 
from  with  real  regret.  He  has  been  very  kind  and  very  clever.  I  am 
to  deliver  a  letter  he  has  written  to  the  Mudirieh  (Damanhur,  of  which 
Siwah  is  an  annex),  and  to  send  him  my  pistol  and  a  donkey's  bridle  by 
one  of  our  guides  when  these  return.  Mohammed  Said  handed  me  a 
list  of  those  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  attack  on  me,  and  then  he 
too  departed.  When  all  were  gone  and  we  were  once  more  in  the  open 
desert  we  all  breathed  more  freely,  and  have  pushed  quickly  on  and  are 
stopping  now  at  the  last  hattieh  (palm  clump)  of  the  oasis,  some  twenty- 
five  miles  from  Siwah. 

"  4th  March. —  A  long  march  from  5.50  a.m.  to  5.20  p.m.  over  hard 


1897]  The  Oasis  of  Garah  273 

hamad  (gravel  plain)  at  best  pace  —  say  thirty-five  miles  —  and  camped 
at  the  first  sheltered  place  on  descending  towards  Garah.  A  hot  march, 
as  the  wind  was  behind  us,  followed  by  a  bitter  cold  night. 

"  The  two  guides  are  Kheydr,  an  old  man,  tall  and  big-nosed,  a 
Senusite  —  he  was  one  of  those  who  rode  against  us  on  the  28th  at 
what  I  call  the  battle  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  for  the  ruins  were  within  half 
a  mile  of  the  fight.  The  other,  a  great  strong  blackguard  of  the  op- 
posite faction.  They  are  both  amiable  now,  and  made  me  a  present  of 
Siwah  bread  and  date  cake,  very  good,  in  a  pretty  basket.  The  old  man 
I  like.  He  said  to-day,  '  I  have  been  inquiring  about  you  from  your 
servants,  and  I  find  we  made  a  great  mistake  about  you.  It  will  ruin 
Siwah.' 

"  $th  March. —  There  are  three  factions  at  Siwah :  i.  The  Senussia, 
comprising  950  out  of  the  1000  male  inhabitants.  2.  The  followers  of 
one  Abd  es  Salaam  of  Tuggurt,  and  3.  The  followers  of  Mohammed 
Dhaffir  el  Medani  of  Constantinople.  Of  this  last  Mohammed  Said  is 
a  member,  and  so  is  our  guide  Khalaf.  Mohammed  Dhaffir  it  was 
that  made  the  mischief  at  Yildiz  against  Sidi  el  Mahdi,  and  caused  the 
Sultan  to  cut  his  subsidy.  It  is  therefore  pretty  plain  that  our  arriving 
with  letters  to  Mohammed  Said  was  a  first  cause  of  suspicion.  They 
seem  to  have  jumped  at  once  to  the  conclusion  that  I  was  a  spy,  from 
Mohammed  Dhaffir  or  another,  with  plans  against  their  chief."  [N.B. 
This  Mohammed  Dhaffir  el  Medani  is  doubtless  the  same  Sheykh  Zaffir 
who  corresponded  with  Arabi  on  behalf  of  the  Sultan  in  1882.  See 
my  "  Secret  History."] 

"  This  morning  we  descended  to  Garah,  a  pretty  little  oasis,  with  a 
quaint  village  perched  on  a  mushroom  rock,  inhabited  by  negroes. 
There  are  two  springs  and  a  well,  the  western  spring  called  Ain  Mak- 
hluf,  the  eastern  Ain  Faris.  Makhluf  has  a  deep  hole  in  the  middle 
of  the  spring  like  that  at  Wells.  We  found  the  inhabitants  of  Garah 
en  fete,  for  to-day  is  the  Id  (festival)  and  their  Sheykh,  an  old  negro, 
came  out  to  greet  us  and  ask  us  to  alight,  but  I  would  not  stop,  and  we 
have  come  on  to  the  far  end  of  the  oasis,  and  are  camped  under  some 
wild  palms.  Some  fifteen  miles  to-day.  According  to  the  barometer 
we  are  here  250  feet  below  the  sea  level.  It  was  400  above  yesterday  on 
the  high  plateau. 

"  In  all  this  time  of  trial  I  have  been  reading  Doughty  —  certainly  the 
best  prose  written  in  the  last  two  centuries.  He  is  of  excellent  counsel 
for  such  straits  as  we  have  been  in ;  and  I  think  it  was  in  great  measure 
due  to  his  influence  that  I  took  the  passive  line  I  did  the  day  of  the 
attack.  Any  other  would  have  cost  me  my  life. 

"  6th  March. —  Thirteen  hours'  march  without  a  halt,  perhaps  forty 
miles.  Our  course  was  north-east  by  east,  to  the  khusm  of  Abdel 
Nebbi.  Thence  there  are  two  roads  which  part  company  to  join  again 


274  A  Bedouin  Shows  Us  Water 

at  Lebbakh.  We  chose  the  northern  way.  We  are  camped  at  the  first 
palms  of  a  new  oasis. 

"  7th  March. —  All  day  till  three  skirting  a  great  sebkha  with  cliff 
to  our  left,  and  camped  at  a  spring.  Found  a  dead  pratincole  and  saw 
two  falcons.  Barometer  shows  165  below  sea  level.  The  name  of  our 
camp,  Gatara.  Water  pretty  good,  an  open  spring  with  a  run  of  water 
from  under  palms.  Chats  with  white  heads  and  tails,  as  at  Siwah.  A 
yellow  wagtail  with  black  head.  Twenty-five  miles. 

"  8th  March. —  Rounded  the  point  of  Gatara  and  on  to  El  Haj,  six 
hours.  El  Haj,  an  open  spring  in  a  sandy  ravine,  water  salt.  At  2.50 
crossed  a  bay  of  the  sebkha,  and  camped  at  a  hattieh  —  perhaps  twenty- 
eight  miles.  Saw  a  gazelle  on  the  sebkha,  and  flushed  a  quail.  We  are 
camped  il/2.  miles  east  of  the  pyramidal  peak  of  El  Tartur.  Good 
guttdf  pasture  for  the  camels. 

"  gth  March. —  Took  water  from  an  open  pit  under  Abu  Tartur.  It 
might  be  easily  passed  unnoticed,  being  marked  only  by  some  burnt 
palms.  A  great  bird  of  prey,  brown,  grey,  and  black  (?),  and  some 
pippits.  All  day  coasting  the  sebkha,  with  lines  of  hill  still  in  front. 
Eleven  hours'  march,  thirty  miles.  We  have  now  travelled,  according 
to  my  calculation,  198  miles  from  Siwah  in  seven  days. 

"  loth  March. —  To  Lebbakh  well,  eleven  hours,  say  thirty  miles, 
good  nossi  and  sgaa  pasture.  The  well  is  about  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  south  of  the  headland,  the  last  of  the  range  eastwards.  It  is 
marked  by  a  low  tel.  I  am  tired,  and  Yemama  is  tired.  The  sebkha 
ends  here. 

"  Later.  I  was  premature  about  the  well.  After  three  hours'  absence 
Kheydr  and  Eid  have  returned,  having  failed  to  find  it.  So  we  are 
without  water.  I  have  given  what  remained  in  my  girbeh  to  the  gen- 
eral stock.  Yemama  had  a  jerdel,  and  there  is  now  absolutely  no  drop 
in  camp,  except  one  quart  bottle  I  keep  always  in  reserve.  Kheydr 
promises  water  to-morrow  at  noon  at  Maghara,  '  sweet  as  the  Nile.' 
We  are  now,  I  calculate,  160  miles  from  the  Nile  valley. 

"  nth  March. —  A  long  forced  march  of  thirty  miles.  I  did  not  ride 
Yemama,  as  she  is  suffering  from  thirst,  and  is  looking  thin  and  tucked 
up.  They  found  the  well  this  morning,  but  it  was  salt,  and  the  mare 
would  not  drink.  To-day  we  passed  through  herds  of  wandering 
camels.  There  is  pasture,  erta,  nossi,  adr.  At  half -past  two  crossed 
a  party  of  Oulad  Ali,  who  told  us  we  were  going  wrong,  and  took  us 
to  Maghara  water  —  most  fortunate.  Maghara  is  a  small  oasis  three 
miles  south-west  of  the  first  step  of  the  hill. 

"  I2th  March. —  The  Bedouin  who  showed  us  the  water,  Abu  Bekr, 
lives  in  the  neighbourhood.  Every  ten  days  he  visits  Maghara,  and 
fetches  ten  girbehs  of  water  on  donkeys  for  his  household,  a  bright, 
good  Bedouin,  who  was  really  unwilling  to  take  the  present  I  offered 


1897]  Doggedly  on  to  Natron  275 

him.  I  said,  '  For  the  water.'  He  answered,  '  It  was  not  worth  it.' 
(If  we  had  not  chanced  to  meet  him  it  would  have  fared  ill  with  us.) 
From  this  point  I  took  command,  as  Kheydr  had  no  clear  idea  of  the 
direction.  Abu  Bekr  had  told  us,  '  go  towards  that  star,'  pointing  to 
one  rising  in  the  east.  I  made  my  course  a  point  north  of  west,  and 
made  a  nine  hours'  march,  perhaps  twenty-three  miles,  letting  the 
camels  feed,  and  am  camped  in  a  good  wady,  with  erta  and  eshub. 
Yemama  eats  the  erta,  and  several  kinds  of  eshub,  besides  the  nossi. 
We  have  our  six  girbehs  full,  to  last  us  till  the  Nile  or  the  Wady  Natron. 

"  I3th  March. —  Another  nine  hours'  march  due  east.  I  insisted 
upon  this,  as  they  wanted,  all  of  them  but  Suliman,  to  go  south-east, 
which  I  knew  must  be  wrong.  So  across  country  we  went,  taking  care- 
ful bearings  at  every  height  to  keep  our  line  true.  It  was  all  open 
ground.  Some  camel  herders  we  passed  told  us  the  Wady  (Natron) 
was  in  front  of  us,  thus  confirming  my  judgment.  At  2.45  we  camped 
in  a  bit  of  pasture,  whence  we  disturbed  gazelles.  These  are  now  once 
more  of  the  smaller  Eastern  kind.  (They  are  larger  in  the  west). 
Came  on  a  vulture  on  a  dead  camel.  Saw  cranes  passing  northwards 
overhead.  Three  days  more  should  see  us  now  at  home.  Twenty- 
seven  miles'  march. 

"i4//t  March — Held  doggedly  on  my  course  due  east,  passing  much 
petrified  wood.  There  is  a  general  discontent  at  my  persisting  in  my 
own  direction  over  hill  and  dale,  all  good  going  on  gravel.  At  noon 
we  crossed  a  well-marked  caravan  road,  bearing  north-east,  but  I  held 
on  by  compass,  and  presently  we  got  glimpses  of  a  yellow  wady  about 
three  miles  off  I  knew  must  be  Natron,  and  at  four  found  ourselves 
within  two  miles  of  the  westernmost  convent  straight  in  front  of  us 
(a  good  bit  of  navigation).  Here  we  are  camped.  Some  thirty  miles 
to-day. 

"  i$th  March. —  This  morning  our  party  broke  up,  Beseys  and  Min- 
shawi  making  a  line  for  their  home  in  the  Fayoum,  our  two  khabirs  also 
leaving  us  to  visit  friends  in  the  Rif,  and  we  down  the  Natron  Valley, 
passing  four  convents  on  our  way  to  Sheykh  Ahmed  and  Fum  el  Bahr. 
We  camped  in  the  plain  between  Natron  and  the  Rif.  Twenty-eight 
miles. 

"  i6th  March. —  This  morning  we  saw  a  strange  sight.  The  moon 
was  setting,  and  we  saw  three  moons,  and  the  sun  was  rising,  and  we 
saw  two  suns.  At  noon  we  reached  the  Nile  Valley  and  rested  awhile, 
feasting  our  eyes  on  the  greenness  and  the  water  near  Sheykh  Ahmed. 
Then  on,  and  camped  at  Fum  el  Bahr.  Thirty  miles. 

"  I7//J  March. —  Reached  Sheykh  Obeyd  on  St.  Patrick's  day,  at 
11.15,  a  weary  crew,  having  travelled  413  miles  in  fourteen  and  a  half 
days,  the  fortieth  day  from  our  leaving  it.  El  Hatndul  Illah  \ 

"  24th  March. —  Sheykh  Obeyd.     I  returned  from  my  Siwah  journey 


276  We  Reach  Sheykh  Obeyd  Once  More  [1897 

on  the  1 7th  at  a  quarter  past  eleven,  meeting  Anne  accidentally  on  her 
way  through  the  palm  grove  from  the  station.  I  could  hardly  speak 
for  tears  of  joy.  I  had  been  away  the  forty  days,  during  which  she 
was  to  expect  no  news  of  me,  and  this  was  the  forty-first,  and  during 
the  whole  of  that  time  I  had  not  spoken  a  word  of  any  language  but 
Arabic,  till  I  had  come  even  to  think  in  Arabic,  and  I  was  weak  and 
worn  out,  and  famished  in  mind  and  body.  Our  last  run  from  Siwah, 
413  miles,  had  been  accomplished  in  fourteen  days  and  a  half. 

"  Since  then  I  have  been  resting,  except  that  on  the  2Oth  I  went 
into  Cairo  and  lunched  with  Gorst,  and  at  his  suggestion  drew  up  a 
memorandum  in  writing  for  him  of  the  circumstances  of  my  journey. 
There  have  been  two  political  events  during  my  absence,  the  war  in 
Crete  and  Rodd's  mission  to  Abyssinia.  I  hardly  know  what  to  say 
yet  on  either  case.  Personally  I  have  come  back  from  my  journey  with 
my  mind  cleared  on  one  point  important  to  my  life.  It  is  as  to  religion. 
My  experience  of  the  Senussia  at  Siwah  has  convinced  me  that  there  is 
no  hope  anywhere  to  be  found  in  Islam.  I  had  made  myself  a  ro- 
mance about  these  reformers,  but  I  see  that  it  has  no  substantial  basis, 
and  I  shall  never  go  farther  now  than  I  am  in  the  Mohammedan  direc- 
tion. The  less  religion  in  the  world,  perhaps,  after  all,  the  better. " 


CHAPTER  XIII 

OMDURMAN   AND  FASHODA 

From  this  point  my  more  violent  activities  in  life  may  be  said  to 
have  ended.  My  health  had  suffered  seriously  from  the  extreme  hard- 
ships of  my  journeys,  hardships  which  hitherto  I  had  borne  with  easily, 
but  which  now  at  my  age  of  fifty-six  had  taken  their  revenge  on  me. 
The  next  two  years  were  for  this  reason  an  unhappy  period  of  my 
life,  and  this,  though  I  do  not  often  make  mention  in  it  of  my  suffer- 
ings, is  reflected  in  my  diary. 

We  left  Sheykh  Obeyd  on  the  iQth  April.  Four  days  before,  on 
1 5th  April,  I  had  gone  to  wish  the  Khedive  good-bye.  He  received 
me  pleasantly,  as  always,  with  pretty  speeches  about  my  friendship  for 
him,  and  the  good  report  of  me  he  heard  from  everyone.  He  asked 
about  my  journey  to  Siwah  and  the  attack  made  on  me.  I  made 
rather  light  of  it  with  him  as  a  ghazu  (an  accident  of  travel),  but  he 
said  he  had  heard  it  was  the  doing  of  the  Senussia.  About  the  state 
of  affairs  between  Greece  and  Turkey  he  said  things  could  not  be 
going  worse.  The  Sultan  was  ruining  the  Empire,  the  end  could  not 
be  far  distant.  "  But  where  can  we  look,"  he  asked,  "  for  another 
chief?  In  Arabia  there  is  only  your  friend  Ibn  Rashid,  and  he  is 
little  more  than  a  Bedouin."  With  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu  too  I 
had  a  farewell  talk. 

"  ijth  April. —  Abdu  brought  me  news  that  war  was  declared  be- 
tween Greece  and  Turkey.  We  agreed  that  it  was  better  things  had 
come  to  actual  war.  Personally  I  think  that  it  would  be  no  loss  for  the 
Ottoman  Empire  if  the  Greeks  should  be  able  to  hold  their  own  in 
Macedonia,  though  I  do  not  expect  it,  for  a  defeat  of  the  Turkish  army 
would  bring  about  a  revolution  at  Constantinople,  and  even  a  European 
war  would  do  no  harm.  '  When  thieves  fall  out,  honest  men  come 
by  their  own.'  The  Ottoman  Empire  cannot  be  made  to  last  in 
Europe,  and  as  soon  as  the  remnant  of  the  provinces  there  are  lost  the 
better  it  will  be.  I  expect,  however,  to  see  the  Turks  advance  on 
Athens,  when  the  Powers  would  doubtless  intervene  to  stop  the  fight- 
ing, which  they  could  do  by  pressure  at  Constantinople.  Then  there 
may  be  a  second  chance  for  the  establishment  of  a  better  order  of 
things  on  the  Bosphorous,  for  it  would  be  too  great  a  scandal  to  allow 
the  Sultan  and  his  palace  clique  to  go  on  for  another  twenty  years  on 

277 


278  Victory  of  the  Turks  in  Greece  [l%97 

a  new  lease  of  absolute  power;  possibly  the  victorious  general  might 
become  the  leader  of  a  constitutional  change  in  Turkey,  but  we  shall 
see." 

"  ist  May. —  Back  in  England,  where  we  arrived  at  the  end  of  the 
month.  The  Greeks  have  been  smashed  badly  by  Edhem  Pasha  in 
Thessaly ;  they  seem  to  have  run  away  rather  than  fought,  which  would 
be  more  creditable  to  them  if  they  had  not  been  the  aggressors  in  the 
quarrel.  I  am  sorry,  on  the  whole,  as  the  Turkish  victory  is  strength- 
ening the  Sultan's  hand  at  Constantinople,  and  will  put  back  the  clock 
of  reform.  There  is  little  chance,  I  fear,  of  Edhem's  coming  forward 
as  a  revolutionist,  but  I  am  nearly  dead  to  politics  as,  indeed,  to  all 
else  but  the  horses  and  the  sunshine. 

"  8th  May. —  The  Greeks  are  again  beaten  and  in  retreat,  and  the 
Turkish  army  will  now  advance  on  Athens  and  dictate  its  terms  of 
peace.  The  Sultan  is  entirely  rehabilitated  in  public  opinion,  for  the 
world  adores  military  success,  and  he  will  probably  now  go  on  in 
triumph  till  he  dies. 

"  i8th  May. —  Newbuildings.  On  the  I3th  George  Wyndham  came 
to  spend  the  day  with  me  and  stopped  the  night.  He  was  full  of  his 
journey  to  South  Africa  and  of  his  South  African  Commission,  where 
he  has  played  the  part  of  advocate  for  Rhodes  and  his  gang,  and  is 
still  playing  it.  With  this  I  am  of  course  in  little  sympathy,  but 
George  and  I  know  how  to  differ  without  quarrelling.  He  told  me 
much  of  the  inner  working  of  the  great  intrigue  and  promised  more 
some  day.  We  also  talked  about  the  Henley  edition  of  my  poems,  and 
about  his  own  '  New  Review.' 

"  $rd  June. —  George  was  here  yesterday.  The  South  African  Com- 
mittee is  virtually,  not  virtuously,  over,  and  no  one  in  his  senses  can 
doubt  that  Chamberlain  was  privy  to  the  raid,  not  indeed  at  the  last 
moment  but  in  its  initial  stages.  I  asked  George  whether  it  was  not 
so.  '  Chamberlain  has  denied  it/  he  answered  diplomatically. 

"  i$th  June. —  Drove  to  Bramber  and  dined  with  Button  in  his 
newly  purchased  old  house  there,  St.  Mary's,  which  he  has  furnished 
with  bric-a-brac,  and  had  the  little  meadow  behind  it  laid  out  in  minia- 
ture avenues.  We  talked  of  old  political  times.  He  tells  me  that  at 
the  time  Wolseley  started  for  Egypt  in  1882,  the  Rothschilds  had  the 
whole  of  their  working  capital  in  Egyptian  securities,  and  were  in  such 
a  fright  about  the  Domains  lest  Arabi  should  flood  the  country  and 
destroy  the  property  pledged  to  them,  that  they  got  Wolseley  to  hurry 
on  the  campaign  at  all  costs  to  prevent  his  cutting  the  canals.  But- 
ton had  this  from  Wolseley  himself  at  the  time,  and  it  agrees  with 
what  he  (Button)  told  me  then. 

"  ijth  June. —  Hyndman  came  to  breakfast  with  me  in  Mount  Street, 
and  we  discussed  the  state  of  Europe,  Africa  and  Asia.  He  knows 


1897]  H>  M.  Hyndman  279 

a  great  deal  and  told  me  many  curious  things,  among  others  the  genesis 
of  the  English  connection  with  the  Suez  canal.  He  assures  me  that 
it  was  not  Beaconsfield's  idea,  but  Greenwood's,  who  was  at  that  time 
Editor  of  the  '  Pall  Mall  Gazette,'  and  on  whose  staff  Hyndman  was. 
Greenwood  conceived  the  plan  of  the  Government  buying  the  shares,  and 
after  consulting  with  his  colleagues  on  the  paper  went  to  Lord  Derby  to 
suggest  it.  Derby  approved  and  sent  him  on  to  Beaconsfield,  who  at 
first  was  much  disinclined,  but  eventually  agreed,  giving  the  job  to 
the  Rothschilds,  a  quite  unnecessary  waste  of  commission  as  the 
shares  could  have  been  bought  with  Treasury  Bonds  in  the  ordinary 
way.  He  told  me  much,  too,  of  his  dealings  with  Lord  Salisbury  at 
election  times,  and  about  French  and  German  socialism.  He  stayed 
two  hours  with  me. 

"  2oth  June  (Jubilee  Sunday). —  The  streets  decked  out  with  scaf- 
folding and  red  cloth.  London  architecture  lends  itself  to  these  dis- 
guisements,  as  there  is  nothing  to  lose  by  being  hidden. 

"  2ist  June. —  Alfred  Austin's  'Jubilee  Ode'  is  published  in  the 
'  Times,'  and  as  good  as  a  thing  of  the  kind  can  be,  and  I  have  written 
to  tell  him  so.  When  he  was  first  made  Laureate  1  did  not  write,  be- 
cause I  really  could  not  have  said  anything  about  his  poetry  that  would 
have  pleased  him,  but  to-day  I  am  able  to  do  so  with  a  good  conscience. 
We  are  old  acquaintances  of  something  like  forty  years'  standing,  and 
personally  I  am  pleased  at  his  success. 

"  22nd  June. —  The  Queen's  Jubilee  Day  —  the  evening  and  night 
of  which  I  spent  on  Chanclebury  Down,  camped  among  the  thorn 
bushes  near  the  top  of  the  Ridge,  a  beautiful  but  rather  hazy  evening, 
quite  warm,  no  moon,  little  parties  of  country  people  out  on  foot, 
others  in  vans,  but  not  enough  of  them  to  injure  the  solitude.  At  half- 
past  nine  rockets  began  to  be  fired  away  at  Shoreham,  and  a  light  ap- 
peared on  Leith  Hill,  then  illuminations  at  Shoreham  and  Brighton, 
and  precisely  at  ten  bonfires  were  lit  up.  I  counted  ninety-seven  of 
them,  and  there  were  probably  more,  for  the  clump  hid  part  of  the 
horizon.  It  was  an  inspiriting  sight,  and  we  tried  to  make  out  our 
own  bonfire  at  Newbuildings,  which  lies  in  a  straight  line  between 
Chanclebury  and  Leith  Hill. 

"  26th  June. —  The  day  of  the  Jubilee  Review  at  Portsmouth.  A 
Jingo  apotheosis  which  contrasts  strangely  with  my  recollection  of 
Portsmouth  seventeen  years  ago,  when  our  military  and  naval  glory 
was  at  so  low  an  ebb  that  even  I  felt  humiliated. 

"  27th  June  (Sunday). —  I  am  at  Swinford  on  a  visit  to  Austin. 
Austin  is  naive  about  his  position  and  dignity  as  Poet  Laureate.  He 
assured  me  that  he  had  made  it  a  condition  in  accepting  the  post  that 
he  was  not  to  write  Odes  to  order.  I  asked  him  how  he  had  written 
his  Jubilee  performance,  suggesting  that  it  must  have  been  troublesome 


280  Alfred  Austin's  Idea  of  Heaven  [1897 

to  manage.  On  the  contrary,  he  told  me,  he  had  done  it  without  more 
effort  than  just  to  fix  his  mind  determinedly  and  reverently  on  Her 
Majesty,  waiting  till  the  inspiration  came,  '  and  (after  a  pause)  it 
came.'  He  showed  me  a  letter  from  the  Queen's  private  secretary, 
thanking  him  for  the  verses,  and  saying  that  Her  Majesty  thought 
them  very  pretty,  but  when  he  went  to  present  them  at  Windsor,  she  did 
not  ask  him  to  recite  them.  A  letter  from  Lord  Salisbury  was  in 
the  same  sense;  however,  Austin  is  so  loyal  that  he  even  apologized 
for  depreciating  Victorian  a:  ihitecture.  In  the  afternoon  we  all  sat 
talking  on  the  lawn,  Lady  Paget  and  Lady  Windsor  being  of  the 
party,  and  it  was  suggested  that  each  of  us  should  give  his  idea  of 
Heaven.  Mine  was  to  be  laid  out  to  sleep  in  a  garden,  with  running 
water  near,  and  so  to  sleep  for  a  hundred  thousand  years,  then  to  be 
woke  by  a  bird  singing,  and  to  call  out  to  the  person  one  loved  best, 
'  Are  you  there  ?  '  and  for  her  to  answer,  '  Yes,  are  you  ? '  and  so  turn 
round  and  go  to  sleep  again  for  another  hundred  thousand  years. 
Austin's  idea  was  to  sit  also  in  a  garden,  and  while  he  sat  to  receive 
constant  telegrams  announcing  alternately  a  British  victory  by  sea, 
and  a  British  victory  by  land.  He  talked  to  us  a  good  deal  about  Irv- 
ing, and  told  us  that  Irving  had  begun  life  as  a  boy  of  all  work  in 
the  family  of  a  solicitor  in  Cornwall,  where  his  father  and  mother 
were  butler  and  cook.  The  solicitor  put  the  boy  into  his  law  office  as 
a  junior  clerk,  but  dismissed  him  because  he  paid  no  attention  to  busi- 
ness, only  to  play-acting  in  office  hours. 

"  6th  July. —  A  letter  from  Joseph  Potocki  telling  the  ugly  news  of 
the  burning  of  the  Countess  Branicka's  stud  and  stables;  one  hundred 
and  thirty  horses  perished,  including  two  colts  they  bought  from  us 
last  year.  It  is  said  to  be  the  vengeance  of  an  English  groom  dismissed 
for  theft.  Her  daughter  Sophie  is  engaged  to  marry  Prince  Strozzi. 

"  i2th  July. —  My  new  room  at  Newbuildings  which  I  call  the  '  Jubi- 
lee Room '  is  finished,  and  looks  already  part  of  the  old  house.  It  was 
built  without  plan,  elevation,  or  sketch  of  any  kind,  Thorpe  and  I 
working  it  out  together  as  we  went  on."  [The  Jubilee  Room  was 
more  than  a  room,  being  a  separate  building  with  two  stories.  Thorpe, 
a  plain  stone  and  bricklayer  born  and  bred  in  the  parish,  a  painstaking, 
conscientious  man  working  slowly,  but  with  a  complete  knowledge  of 
his  trade  and  its  older  traditions.  The  panelling  inside  was  done  by 
my  estate  carpenter,  Bench.] 

"  i^th  July. —  The  South  African  committee  has  published  a  report, 
certainly  the  most  scandalous  ever  jobbed.  It  absolves  Chamberlain 
in  these  words :  '  Neither  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  nor 
any  of  the  officials  of  the  Colonial  office  received  any  information 
which  made  or  should  have  made  them  or  any  of  them  aware  of  the  plot 
during  its  development.'  It  may  be  noticed  that  this  pronouncement 


1897]  Chamberlain  Whitewashed  281 

carefully  avoids  what  undoubtedly  happened,  namely  that  Chamber- 
lain's attitude  to  Rhodes  and  Beit  was  practically  this :  '  Manage  the 
matter  your  own  way,  but  remember  I  am  to  know  nothing  about  it.' 
Rhodes  is  condemned  publicly  in  the  report,  but  will  be  let  off  all 
punishment.  He  will  not  even  be  struck  off  the  list  of  the  Queen's 
Privy  Councillors.  I  hear  that  the  Queen  personally  assured  the  Em- 
peror William  when  the  raid  happened  that  none  of  her  Ministers 
were  cognisant  of  the  affair,  and  this  assurance  given  by  the  Queen 
accounts  for  the  strange  attitude  of  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  other 
Radicals  on  the  Committee  who  have  signed  the  report.  The  whole  of 
our  public  life  is  rotten,  and  will  remain  so  till  we  have  received  a 
serious  defeat  in  war.  The  Queen  is  at  the  bottom  of  half  the  Imper- 
ialistic mischief  we  do  abroad.  She  is  pleased  at  the  title  of  Empress, 
and  likes  to  enlarge  her  borders.  I  should  not  be  at  all  surprised  if 
she  was  really  in  the  Jameson  affair  with  her  Ministers,  indeed  this 
is  the  best  explanation  of  the  extraordinary  manoeuvres  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  the  connivance  of  the  official  opposition. 

"  24th  July. —  Our  annual  Arab  stud  sale  at  Crabbet.  Brilliant 
weather ;  an  immense  gathering ;  320  persons  sat  down  to  lunch ;  a 
good  many  of  these,  foreigners  and  colonials;  a  successful  but  tiring 
day. 

"  27/&  July. —  To  London  and  lunched  with  George,  whom  I  found 
triumphant  over  the  issue  of  the  debate  on  South  Africa  last  night. 
He  considers  the  triumph  of  the  Rhodes  group,  which  is  his  own 
triumph,  due  to  superior  ability  in  the  Parliamentary  management,  the 
skill  with  which  they  split  the  Liberal  opposition,  the  capture  of  old 
Harcourt,  the  forcing  of  Chamberlain's  hand  into  open  support  of 
Rhodes  and  the  bamboozling  of  the  stupid  M.P.'s.  With  regard  to 
Chamberlain,  George  admires  him  as  the  grandest  specimen  of  the 
courageous,  unscrupulous  schemer  our  politics  have  ever  seen.  He 
says  that  Chamberlain  was  not  an  accomplice  of  the  actual  armed 
raid  made  by  Jameson  —  though  he  certainly  was  in  the  political  in- 
trigue—  and  he  (Chamberlain)  would  not  deny  it  —  against  the  in- 
dependence of  the  Transvaal.  He  described  Chamberlain's  speech  and 
the  menace  he  (Chamberlain)  threw  out  to  Dilke  if  any  one  should 
dare  propose  the  cancelling  of  Rhodes'  position  in  the  Privy  Council. 
Chamberlain  did  not  name  Dilke,  but  his  eye,  while  speaking,  travelled 
along  the  benches  of  the  Opposition,  so  that  it  was  clear  to  all  what 
his  meaning  was.  It  was  a  base  threat,  and  he  would  certainly  have 
followed  it  up  if  the  Radicals  had  dared  accept  his  challenge.  George 
triumphs  in  all  this,  but  to  me  it  is  pitiful  to  see  a  young  man  like  him, 
the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  connecting  himself  with  such  a  scoundrel  crew. 
The  whole  Cabinet  is  now  the  duumvirate  of  Balfour  and  Chamber- 
lain, but  I  told  George  he  would  find  one  day  that  Arthur  would  be 


282  The  Herberts  at  Wilton  [1897 

the  victim  of  some  base  trick  in  order  that  the  other  might  reign  alone." 
In  August  I  made  a  driving  tour  through  the  West  of  England  and 
South  Wales.  The  day  before  starting  I  received  a  letter  from  Edward 
Malet  breaking  the  silence  of  fifteen  years.  It  was  very  cordial  and 
expressed  regret  for  our  troubled  relations  in  the  past.  I  have  an- 
swered it  in  a  way  which  I  hope  may  bring  about  a  renewal  of  our 
friendship.  The  occasion  of  his  letter  was  the  discovery  among  his 
mother's  papers  of  a  number  of  MS.  poems  he  thought  were  mine. 
In  reality  they  were  Lothian's  as  I  can  see  by  the  handwriting,  and 
also  by  internal  evidence  —  poems  of  dates  between  1861  and  1864, 
the  time  Schomberg  and  I  were  most  together  and  most  with  Lady 
Malet.  I  need  not  give  a  full  account  of  this  journey.  We  passed 
through  Pet  worth  and  Rogate,  where  I  found  Hugh  Wyndham,  just 
retired  from  diplomatic  work  after  his  forty  years'  career.  Then  by 
Bishop's  Waltham  to  Salisbury  and  Stockton,  stopping  for  a  couple  of 
hours  at  Wilton  on  my  way.  This  time  I  found  Sidney,  now  Lord 
Pembroke,  at  home  with  his  family  of  boys  at  cricket,  much  as 
I  found  the  former  generation  thirty  years  ago.  "  Wilton  is  the  para- 
dise of  England  with  its  three  rivers,  eternally  beautiful  and  un- 
changed while  its  owners  change  and  perish.  One  passes  by  and  finds 
Herberts  living  there,  happily  idling  their  lives  away,  as  one  finds 
swallows  year  after  year  nesting  in  a  village,  and  one  imagines  them 
to  be  the  same  Herberts,  as  one  imagines  the  others  to  be  the  same 
swallows.  At  Warminster  next  day  I  stopped  to  bait  and  dined  at 
the  ordinary  at  the  Anchor  Inn,  it  being  market  day  among  the  farmers 
with  whom  I  talked  agriculture  and  the  price  of  mutton.  But  when 
they  found  I  was  not  there  to  buy  lambs  they  lost  interest  in  me. 
I  found  to  my  surprise  that  of  the  ten  farmers  dining  with  me  five 
drank  water  only,  the  rest  cider.  Our  meat  was  roast  ducks  carved 
by  a  chairman  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and  at  one  moment  I  was  half 
afraid  they  were  going  to  make  speeches."  I  spent  my  Sunday,  8th 
August,  at  Mells,  where  I  found  a  company  of  "  Souls,"  then  on  to 
Bristol  where  I  put  up  for  the  night  at  an  odd  place  of  entertainment 
called  "  The  Bath,"  kept  by  a  Dr.  Shaw  and  his  wife,  a  pretty  woman, 
who  had  been  long  in  India,  and  who  was  the  attraction  evidently  of 
the  guests,  mostly  retired  Anglo-Indians,  patients  as  well  as  guests, 
as  indicated  by  the  menu  cards,  which  were  marked  with  medicines  as 
well  as  wines.  Bristol  is  the  refuge  of  such  broken-down  officials, 
who  live  at  its  cheap  lodging-houses.  The  next  day,  crossing  the  Severn 
Channel  by  the  tunnel  to  Cardiff  and  St.  Pagan's,  where  I  spent  the 
inside  of  a  week  delightfully  with  the  Windsors  in  their  romantic 
castle,  which  is  such  a  perfect  thing,  an  old  Carolan  house  set  in 
the  enceinte  of  an  older  castle  wall,  spoilt  by  nothing  modern,  the 
object  of  my  pilgrimage,  and  back,  still  driving  through  the  romantic 


1897]  Afghan  Troubles  283 

country  of  King  Arthur  and  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  Caer- 
philly,  Caerleon,  Chepstow,  and  the  Forest  of  Dean,  where  I  camped 
close  to  what  is  called  the  Devil's  Chapel,  and  thence  by  Berkeley  Castle, 
Easton  Grey,  Broad  Hinton,  and  Savernake,  Hurstbourne,  Minley,  and 
so  home.  It  had  been  a  journey  of  385  miles,  made  in  nineteen  days 
with  my  four  Arab  mares,  not  one  of  which  had  tired  or  been  off  her 
feed  for  a  single  day,  and  trotted  in  gamely,  eager  to  be  at  home.  The 
journey  had  done  me  good.  My  journal  of  this  tour  is  extremely  in- 
teresting, but  once  more  it  is  impossible  to  give  it  a  place  here,  as  it 
would  lead  me  too  far  along  the  pleasant  byways  of  social  life  and 
away  from  the  prescribed  high  road  of  public  things. 

"  4th  Sept. —  For  the  last  three  weeks  there  have  been  high  doings  in 
India  on  the  Afghan  frontier,  and  to-day  expeditions  on  a  large  scale 
are  announced.  This  is  closely  connected  with  our  absurd  policy  at 
Constantinople.  The  position  to-day  with  Russia  protecting  the  Cali- 
phate at  Constantinople,  France  in  alliance  with  Russia  and  Germany 
also  in  the  coalition  against  us,  justifies  all  I  wrote  and  did  in  Egypt 
sixteen  years  ago.  Dined  at  my  club  and  had  some  talk  with  Nicholas 
O'Conor  who,  heaven  help  us!  is  now  Her  Majesty's  ambassador  to 
the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias. 

"  2$th  Sept. —  To  Saighton,  where  I  find  a  house  full  of  friends  and 
acquaintance,  Dick  Grosvenor,  Edward  Clifford,  Gatty,  Henry  Milner 
and  Lady  Clifden,  etc.,  with  nothing  for  a  vegetarian  to  eat  [Lady 
Windsor  had  persuaded  me  to  become  a  vegetarian],  and  I  dined  off 
two  mushrooms  and  a  raisin;  nevertheless  a  pleasant  evening,  George 
laying  down  the  law  about  Shakespeare,  Ronsard,  Brantome,  and  a 
number  more. 

"  2?th  Sept. —  At  Saighton.  Played  lawn  tennis  with  George. 
Spent  the  evening  with  him,  arguing  with  some  heat  the  eternal  ques- 
tion of  the  right  of  savage  nations  to  existence.  George,  who  repre- 
sents the  general  sense  of  modern  Imperial  England,  denies  them 
any  such  right  at  all.  I  am  sick  of  their  arguments  from  Darwin  and 
the  survival  of  the  fittest. 

"  2gth  Sept. —  Back  to  London  and  wrote  going  up  in  the  train  a 
piece  of  verse  for  Gatty's  translations,  the  hymn  beginning: 

If  this  dark  valley  of  distress  and  tears 
So  green  appears. 

"  ist  Oct. —  Shooting  at  Newbuildings  with  Charles  Wyndham, 
Scrope,  and  Evershed.  Scrope  is  a  nice  young  Yorkshireman,  very 
understanding  about  horses,  but  in  poor  health.  He  gave  us  a  naive 
account  of  the  Jameson  raid  as  narrated  to  him  by  his  brother,  who 
took  part  in  it.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  regular  drunken  frolic. 
Jameson  had  up  I  forget  how  many  wagon-loads  of  drink  the  week 


284  The  Jameson  Raid  Described  [1897 

before  he  started,  including,  I  remember,  thirty-six  cases  of  champagne 
which  he  distributed  to  his  men,  with  leave  to  get  drunk  for  three 
days.  There  were  among  the  men  a  number  of  loafers  brought  up 
from  Cape  Town,  some  of  them  waiters  from  the  restaurants,  who  had 
never  been  on  horseback  before,  and  the  whole  force  was  more  or 
less  drunk  when  it  started.  Jameson  had  told  off  three  men  to  cut  the 
telegraph  wires,  but  they  were  in  such  a  condition  that  they  mistook 
a  barbed  wire  fence  for  the  telegraph  and  cut  off  a  hundred  yards  of 
it  and  carefully  buried  it  instead  of  the  other.  When  they  got  near 
Johannesburg,  Jameson  could  not  find  the  way  and  picked  up  Boers 
to  show  it  them,  who  of  course  led  them  wrong.  Scrope's  brother  and 
others  knew  the  road  but  were  not  listened  to.  As  to  drunkenness,  I 
can  well  believe  the  story,  for  I  remember  how,  on  a  journey  in  South 
America  in  1868,  some  English  men  of  the  party  riding  with  me  took 
for  all  provision  on  the  road,  a  gigantic  demi-john  of  spirits,  which 
they  strapped  to  the  back  of  a  horse  and  drove  in  front  of  them." 

I  left  England  in  October  once  more  for  Egypt,  still  in  bad  health, 
indeed  in  worse,  for  1  had  foolishly  allowed  myself  to  be  persuaded 
into  becoming  a  vegetarian  as  well  as  the  teetotaler  I  had  been  for 
fifteen  years,  and  the  life  at  Sheykh  Obeyd,  delightful  to  those  in 
health,  was  too  primitive  to  be  suited  to  an  invalid.  On  board  the 
ship  that  took  us  to  Alexandria  I  found  Walter  Harris,  the  "  Times  " 
correspondent  in  Morocco,  who  told  me  a  good  deal  about  his  life 
at  Tangiers  where  he  has  a  garden  four  miles  from  the  town.  He 
talked  also  about  the  war  in  Thessaly  where  his  brother  was  killed 
last  summer  while  helping  the  Greeks.  The  Greeks  had  abandoned 
the  brother  when  wounded,  after  robbing  him  of  everything.  They 
had  behaved  abominably  during  the  war.  The  Crown  Prince  of  Greece 
himself  told  Harris  that  he  had  seen  the  Evzoni  throw  paraffin  on  the 
Turkish  wounded  and  set  them  on  fire. 

I  found  all  well  at  Sheykh  Obeyd,  except  that  the  desert  round  us 
was  beginning  to  be  cultivated  and  enclosed.  The  day  will  come  when 
we  shall  be  caught  in  a  network  of  gardens  and  country  houses,  though 
so  far  no  great  harm  has  been  done.  People  argue  with  me  and  say, 
"  But  your  property  must  be  increasing  in  value,"  as  if  that  was  any 
consolation  for  losing  the  solitude.  Foxes  are  still  plentiful  in  the 
garden  and  I  have  twice  seen  a  very  large  wolf,  old  and  grey,  who, 
they  tell  me,  has  been  here  all  the  summer,  frightening  the  boys  who 
cut  the  grass  for  the  horses.  Salem  says  the  wolf  pursued  him  one 
evening  and  tore  his  shirt  and  Suliman  that  he  had  taken  two  of  his 
lambs  from  his  tent  outside  our  wall.  He  comes  and  howls  under  our 
window  after  nightfall.  There  are  certainly  two  sorts  of  wolves  here 
besides  jackals,  unless,  indeed,  the  intermediate  size  is  a  cross  between 
wolf  and  jackal.  Our  present  guest  is  of  the  big  desert  kind. 


1897]  Froissart's  Chronicles  285 

"  23rd  Nov. —  I  have  been  reading  Froissart's  '  Chronicles.'  He  must 
have  lived  a  happy  life,  if  what  his  biographers  tell  of  him  is  true.  The 
age  of  chivalry,  brutal  as  it  was  in  its  fighting  aspect,  seems  to  have 
been  sweetened  by  a  good  deal  of  romance,  but  to  this  Froissart  hardly 
alludes,  and,  tells  only  of  battles  and  sieges,  which  were  most  of  them 
ignoble  proceedings.  Edward  IIFs  idea  of  war  seems  to  have  been 
to  raid  the  French  towns  everywhere,  except  just  where  the  French 
army  was.  Both  Cressy  and  Poitiers  were  fought  by  the  English 
because  they  could  not  get  away  from  the  pursuing  French,  and  the 
victory  in  both  cases  was  won  by  the  skill  of  the  English  archers  on 
the  one  side  and  foolish  generalship  on  the  other.  As  a  rule,  it  was 
only  the  unarmed  fighters  on  foot  that  were  killed,  the  knights  and 
squires  surrendered  to  ransom  as  soon  as  they  were  knocked  off  their 
horses.  This  was  all  their  chivalry  of  war. 

"  26th  Nov. —  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu  came  to  see  me,  and  told 
me  the  political  and  court  gossip.  The  latest  is  about  a  trial  in  which 
a  young  man  is  being  prosecuted  for  insulting  and  libelling  the  Khedive 
in  verse.  The  true  movers  in  the  matter,  Abdu  assures  me  are  Mo- 
harram  Pasha  Shahin  and  Sheykh  el  Bekri  in  conjunction  with  Sheykh 
Abul  Huda  at  Constantinople,  and  it  was  done  to  please  the  Sultan. 
Cromer,  however,  has  mixed  himself  up  in  it,  and  in  order  to  obtain 
a  verdict,  or  rather  to  screen  some  persons  implicated  who  are  favour- 
able to  English  policy,  has  had  the  Egyptian  Procureur  of  the  native 
courts  replaced  by  Corbet,  an  Englishman.  The  Khedive  is  still  on 
bad  terms  with  the  Sultan,  and  the  poem  was  written  to  please  his 
Majesty,  but  by  an  unfortunate  mistake  in  the  printing,  one  of  the  in- 
sulting epithets  applied  to  the  Khedive  is  '  Turk,'  so  that  it  has  given 
almost  equal  offence  at  Yildiz. 

"  In  India,  the  Afridis  I  am  glad  to  see  are  still  gallantly  maintain- 
ing themselves  against  General  Lockhart,  and  our  troops  are  getting 
nicely  '  pflnished '  in  their  turn.  It  is  clear  from  their  accounts  that 
but  for  the  superior  fighting  qualities  of  the  Sikhs  and  Ghurkas  the 
white  regiments  could  not  be  got  to  continue  the  campaign.  Lockhart 
has  had  to  encourage  them  publicly  not  to  be  '  downhearted.'  There  is 
talk  in  England  of  conscription  for  the  army,  and  our  people  will  soon 
begin  to  understand  that  they  can't  have  the  amusement  of  empire 
without  paying  the  price.  The  British  Empire  is  a  structure  that 
might  crumble  at  any  moment,  the  sooner  the  better,  say  I. 

"  2<jth  Nov. —  We  have  a  guest  with  us,  Nasr  el  Mizrab,  nephew  of 
that  Mijuel  el  Mizrab,  who  was  Lady  Ellenborough's  last  husband. 
He  is  a  well-spoken  man  and  has  travelled  more  than  once  with 
FrankMi  explorers  in  the  Syrian  desert,  Russians  and  Germans,  buying 
horses  for  them  of  his  Anazeh  kindred. 

"  gth  Dec. —  Young  John  Evelyn  has  come  to  stay  with  us.     His 


286  Drinking  from  d  Poisoned  Well  [1897 

father  sent  him  to  me  on  his  way  up  the  Nile,  saying  that  he  wished 
him  '  to  learn  Arabic,  to  keep  a  diary,  to  acquire  habits  of  observation 
and  self-reliance  and  not  to  imbibe  Jingo  principles,  also  to  marry 
early.'  I  find  the  young  man  excellently  disposed  to  all  these  things 
except  the  last. 

"  2ist  Dec. —  I  am  starting  on  Christmas  Eve  for  Jebel  Attaka  near 
Suez,  as  I  think  I  am  well  enough  now  for  desert  travelling.  Eid, 
Suliman's  young  Howeyti  cousin,  who  travelled  with  us  last  March 
to  Siwah,  and  was  so  good  a  desert  man,  is  dead.  He  had  joined  in 
a  ghazu  in  the  summer  beyond  Akabah,  and,  on  his  way  home,  being 
parched  with  thirst,  drank  of  a  well  whose  property  it  is  to  kill  the 
drinker  in  fourteen  days.  He  reached  home  alive,  but  died  soon  after. 

"  2yd  Dec. —  Had  an  audience  with  the  Khedive  and  took  Walter 
Harris  with  me.  The  talk  was  principally  about  the  Turco-Greek  war, 
as  to  which  Harris  gave  us  some  curious  details.  The  King  of  Greece 
himself  told  him  that  the  reason  that  he  left  Vasos  in  Crete  was  so  as 
to  bring  about  a  blockade  of  the  Piraeus.  '  I  should  then,'  the  King 
said,  '  have  been  able  to  tell  my  people  that  but  for  the  intervention  of 
the  Powers  I  would  have  marched  with  a  hundred  thousand  Greeks 
to  Constantinople.  As  it  turned  out,  we  were  not  prevented  by  the 
Powers  and  so  had  to  make  a  war,  for  which  none  of  us  had  bargained." 

Abbas  afterwards  told  us  of  his  cousin  Prince  Aziz's  attempt  to  go 
to  Nejd.  The  Prince  had  got  as  far  as  Sherm,  a  small  port  in  the 
Sinai  Peninsula,  intending  to  cross  over  from  there  to  Moelhi,  and 
then  on  to  visit  Ibn  Rashid,  but  the  Khedive  had  stopped  him  by  tele- 
gram. He  was  afraid  of  being  compromised  in  Constantinople  by  the 
visit,  and  was  also  unwilling  that  so  light-headed  a  member  of  the 
Khedivial  family  should  be  the  first  to  visit  Nejd  after  the  conquests  of 
old  days.  Aziz  is  now  at  Nakhl,  where  he  is  being  detained  by  the 
Egyptian  governor  of  the  fort. 

"  Lunched  with  Rennell  Rodd,  and  called  afterwards  on  Riaz  Pasha 
and  on  Gorst.  Harris  was  to  have  started  with  me  to-morrow  on  my 
desert  trip,  but  has  been  prevented." 

The  desert  trip  was  a  bit  of  exploration  connected  with  a  map  I  was 
making  of  the  country  between  Cairo  and  the  Red  Sea.  I  returned 
from  it  on  the  last  day  of  the  year. 

"  I2th  Jan.  1898. —  News  has  come  of  the  death  of  Mohammed  Ibn 
Rashid  at  Hail,  '  in  his  bed,'  they  say  after  a  seven  days'  'illness.  If 
truly  in  his  bed,  he  may  rank  as  one  of  the  most  uniformly  successful 
of  Arabian  monarchs.  For  five  and  twenty  years  he  has  reigned  in 
Nejd,  warring  every  spring  upon  his  neighbours  and  always  victoriously. 
He  has  not  once  been  defeated  in  the  field,  and  has  reduced  every  tribe 
in  succession  to  his  obedience.  His  only  misfortune  has  been  that 
he  has  left  no  son,  and  his  inheritance  will  probably  be  disputed  between 


1898]  Death  of  Charles  Villiers  287 

Abdul  Hamid,  son  of  Hamoud,  his  first  cousin  once  removed,  and 
Hamoud  Mattaab,  his  nephew.  Both,  they  say,  claim  '  the  seat,'  and 
are  appealing  to  Constantinople  for  support.  This  may  bring  the  Turk 
into  Nejd,  for  the  Sultan  was  never  so  powerful  in  the  desert  as  now. 
Still,  it  is  a  far  cry  to  Hail. 

"  The  Soudan  campaign  is  being  pushed  on,  and  British  soldiers  are 
being  sent  up  the  Nile,  on  a  pretext  of  defence  against  an  attack  by  the 
Khalifa.  How  anybody  can  be  green  enough  to  believe  these  official 
tales  I  cannot  understand.  The  true  reason  is  the  advance  of  the 
French  expedition  [under  Marchand]  to  the  Upper  Nile  at  Fashoda, 
and  so  the  desire  to  be  beforehand  with  them  at  Khartoum.  The  send- 
ing of  British  troops  is  not  at  all  because  they  are  needed,  for  our 
English  regiments  are  inferior  in  every  way  to  the  Egyptian  ones 
for  such  work,  but  to  gratify  the  English  Government,  and  especially 
the  Queen,  who  considers  the  glory  of  her  reign  tarnished  by  the  death 
of  Gordon  and  who  wants  it  avenged.  If  Egyptian  troops  alone  re- 
captured Khartoum  it  would  be  a  reproach  to  the  British  army,  which 
was  defeated  in  its  attempts  to  relieve  Gordon  there.  They  like,  too, 
to  be  able  to  say  that  the  British  military  Occupation  is  necessary  to 
Egypt  for  its  frontier  defence  —  only  another  false  excuse  in  the 
long  list  of  false  excuses  for  staying  in  Egypt  begun  twenty  years  ago. 

"  2ist  January. —  Gorst  and  his  two  sisters  and  Captain  Fitzclarence 
lunched  with  us.  Gorst  has  given  me  a  list  of  the  people  reported 
to  have  been  killed  at  Sivvah  on  the  2oth  April  of  last  year  in  a  local 
fight.  It  includes  several  of  my  friends  there,  including  Hassuna,  but 
I  feel  sceptical  about  the  whole  story. 

"  22nd  January. —  A  visit  from  Cogordan,  the  French  Minister  here. 
We  talked  about  the  Soudan  expedition.  He  tells  me  Kitchener  will 
be  in  command  of  forty  thousand  troops  including  those  recently  taken 
over  from  the  Italians  at  Kassala,  and  the  ten  thousand  English  who 
were  in  Egypt.  Of  the  Marchand  expedition  he  disclaimed  its  im- 
portance, and  laugh<ed  at  the  talk  that  a  French  flag  will  be  found 
flying  at  Khartoum. 

"  26th  January. —  Old  Charles  Villiers  is  dead,  the  father  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  I  remember  him  at  Frankfort  as  long  ago  as 
the  winter  of  1860-61,  dining  at  our  Legation  with  the  Malets.  He 
impressed  me  at  the  time  as  the  most  wonderful  and  delightful  talker 
I  had  listened  to.  He  seemed  to  take  an  interest  in  me  too,  and  drew 
me  out  till  I  talked  a  deal  of  boyish  nonsense.  The  recollection  of  his 
wit  and  charm  is  strong  with  me  still." 

Here  follows  another  six  days'  journey  in  the  Eastern  desert  on 
dcluls,  travelling  fast  and  map-making  as  we  went,  as  I  was  anxious 
to  complete  my  survey  of  the  country  north  of  the  Kalala  range.  1; 


288  Thoughts  on  the  Empire  [1898 

was  bitter  cold  on  the  upper  plateaux,  and  the  hard  life  nearly  finished 
me,  and  hastened  my  return  to  England. 

"  i$th  February. —  The  papers  report  the  Queen's  speech  on  the 
opening  of  Parliament.  It  contains,  perhaps,  more  than  the  usual 
number  of  insincerities.  Politics  in  England  are  in  a  hopeless  condi- 
tion, and  will  remain  so  until  the  Empire  begins  to  break  up,  when  it 
will  be  too  late  to  say  or  do  anything.  I  shall  not  be  sorry  if  I  live 
to  see  it.  The  British  Empire  has  done  so  much  harm  to  so  many 
nations  and  peoples  that  it  deserves  to  perish,  and  we  English  will  be 
better  off  as  a  Nation  shorn  of  our  dependencies  than  now.  It  will  hurt 
our  pride,  but  injure  no  true  interest. 

"  Prince  Osman  is  dead.  He  was  riding  to  the  Pyramids  on  his 
camel,  and  fell  off  suddenly ;  they  say  apoplexy.  He  was  the  cleverest 
and  most  amusing  of  the  Khedivial  family,  if  not  the  most  reputable ; 
a  brother  of  Princess  Nazli,  and  first  cousin,  once  removed,  of  the 
Khedive.  He  had  been  brought  up  at  Paris,  and  was  always  a  bit  of 
a  boulevardier,  very  pleasant  and  good-natured,  and  with  an  extraor- 
dinary knowledge  of  the  events,  political  and  social,  of  his  time,  a  fat 
Falstaff  in  appearance,  but  like  the  others  of  the  Khedivial  family, 
with  a  certain  bodily  hardihood  and  endurance  on  camel  back ;  my  old- 
est friend  among  them,  and  I  am  sorry  to  lose  him. 

"  2$th  February. —  Anne  and  Judith  lunched  a  few  days  ago  with 
Bill  Gordon,  who  told  them  that  the  real  reason  for  his  uncle's  re- 
signing his  post  as  private  secretary  to  Lord  Ripon  in  India  was  as  fol- 
lows. When  Ripon  was  appointed  to  India  it  was  resolved  by  the 
Cabinet  that  he  should  break  up  the  gang  of  permanent  officials  who 
form  the  Simla  ring,  and  it  was  on  this  understanding  that  Gordon 
accepted  the  post.  A  special  point  to  be  attacked  was  the  treatment  of 
Ayub  Khan  (the  Emir  of  Afghanistan)  as  to  which  Government  had 
evidence  showing  our  English  officials  to  have  acted  unjustly  and 
tyrannically.  Gordon  had  drawn  up  a  special  memoir  on  the  subject 
which  was  to  be  acted  on  immediately  upon  Ripon's  landing  at  Bom- 
bay, but  Ripon  was  no  sooner  on  shore  than  the  officials  got  hold  of 
him  and  persuaded  him  to  let  the  matter  rest.  Gordon,  upon  this, 
threw  up  the  appointment,  for  he  saw  his  chief  was  too  weak  to  carry 
the  policy  through.  A  Viceroy  of  India  needs  to  be  a  man  of  iron 
to  hold  his  own  and  Ripon  was  every  good  thing  except  that. 

"  There  is  talk  of  Cromer's  going  to  the  Foreign  Office.  What 
the  Tories  want  now  is  a  strong  man  to  carry  out  their  policy  of  vio- 
lence, and  Cromer  will  suit  them.  I  care  little  how  things  go,  for  the 
time  of  reasoning  is  past.  There  will  be  no  change  till  the  Empire 
breaks  up  and  Cromer  may  as  well  sit  on  the  Imperial  safety  valve 
as  another.  I  had  a  long  talk  to-day  with  Mohammed  Abdu  about 
this  and  other  matters. 


1898]  Zola  Condemned  in  Dreyfus  Case  289 

"  In  Paris  Zola  has  been  condemned  to  a  year's  imprisonment  for 
bringing  forward  the  Dreyfus  case.  This  is  an  event  of  great  sig- 
nificance, for  it  means  that  in  France  as  in  Germany  and  Russia,  mili- 
tarism reigns  supreme.  It  will  be  so  in  England,  too,  before  many 
years  are  over,  and  then  good-bye  to  liberty  of  any  kind.  If  the 
nations  of  Europe  will  only  cut  each  other's  throats  in  a  Thirty  Years' 
War  there  might  be  some  hope  for  the  world,  but  they  are  too  cow- 
ardly for  that.  All  they  dare  do  is  to  swagger  hideously,  and  talk 
about  their  honour.  It  will  be  with  them  as  it  is  with  the  Spaniards 
who  are  ruled  by  military  pronunciamentos.  With  regard  to  the  Drey- 
fus case,  when  I  was  at  Gros  Bois  last  autumn,  I  asked  Wagram  the 
truth  of  it.  He  told  me  that  it  was  to  please  the  Austrian  Govern- 
ment that  the  case  had  been  tried  privately,  that  justly  or  unjustly 
condemned,  Dreyfus  was  an  affreux  canaille,  and  had  made  some  con- 
fession of  guilt,  but  I  see  little  difference  in  point  of  canailledom 
between  these  wretched  military  spies  and  their  wretched  military  su- 
periors, who  employ  and  pay  them.  Spying,  whether  by  a  paid  agent 
or  a  paying  agent,  demoralises  those  that  indulge  in  it,  and  the  military 
code  of  to-day  recognizes  every  treachery  and  every  baseness  as  law- 
ful. What  nonsense  to  talk  about  military  honour!  There  is  no 
such  thing.  Can  one  conceive  any  greater  blackguard  than  the  soi- 
disant  Esterhazy  unless  it  be  his  military  backers,  Pellieux  and  the 
rest?  On  our  side  the  Channel,  too,  we  have  some  pretty  blackguards 
to  show  lately. 

"  9//i  March. —  Left  for  England.  Mohammed  Abdu  came  to  wish 
me  good-bye.  I  was  suffering  with  great  pain  so  that  I  felt  almost 
dying.  Two  years  ago  under  like  circumstances  I  should  have  made 
him  my  profession  of  faith,  but  to-day  no,  though  I  was  moved  at 
parting  with  him  as  though  I  were  saying  last  words  to  a  dearest 
friend,  but  I  feel  now  there  is  no  reality  in  it  all.  The  Moslems  of 
to-day  who  believe  are  mere  wild  beasts  like  the  men  of  Siwah,  the 
rest  have  lost  their  faith.  Still  less  does  Christianity  appeal  to  me. 
I  do  not  wish  to  live  again.  I  only  wish  for  the  extinction  of  the 
grave.  I  am  going  home  alone,  Anne  staying  on  for  another  six 
weeks  in  Egypt.  I  have  telegraphed  to  my  servant,  David,  to  meet 
me  at  Venice  and  see  me  slowly  home.  My  sole  idea  now  is  to  be  for 
a  week  with  George  in  Mount  Street,  and  then  to  be  nursed  by  Cowie  at 
Newbuildings.  It  was  fortunately  quite  calm  weather  on  my  voyage  up 
the  Adriatic,  and  at  Venice  I  found  an  invitation  waiting  me  from 
Lady  Paget  at  Bellosguardo  in  Florence  where  I  stayed  two  nights, 
and  then  on,  arriving  in  London  on  the  23rd  March,  where  I  found 
George  Wyndham  established  in  my  rooms  in  Mount  Street,  which  I  had 
lent  him ;  there  was  room  for  us  both  there,  and  his  cheerful  influence 
did  me  good. 


290  Why  I  Oppose  the  British  Empire  [1898 

"  24th  March. —  George  is  taking  a  less  practical  part  now  in  poli- 
tics, being  up  to  his  eyes  in  literature,  but  he  walks  home  most  nights 
with  Arthur  Balfour  from  the  House  and  hears  a  good  deal  of  what 
is  going  on.  He  tells  me  Lord  Salisbury  does  not  intend  resigning,  and 
though  he  has  made  over  the  Foreign  Office  temporarily  to  Balfour,  he 
still  keeps  interfering  with  affairs  there  not  altogether  to  Arthur's 
pleasure.  In  talking  about  the  scramble  for  China,  I  had  remarked  that 
I  should  have  thought  an  alliance  with  Japan  was  the  obvious  English 
policy.  He  said,  '  Yes,  but  it  looks  as  if  Japan  had  been  squared  by 
Russia.'  [This  is  the  first  mention  I  can  find  in  my  diary  of  what 
was  afterwards  to  develop  into  the  Anglo-Japanese  alliance.] 

"  George's  new  edition  of  Shakespeare's  poems  is  just  out,  and  he 
is  busy  editing  a  new  weekly  paper,  '  The  Outlook,'  started  as  a  '  raft ' 
on  which  to  save  the  fortunes  of  Henley  and  the  other  writers  wrecked 
in  the  '  New  Review.'  Gladstone  is  dying  of  cancer,  poor  old  soul, 
and  it  has  been  agreed  to  soothe  his  last  days  with  morphia  as  he 
cannot  live  long. 

"  2gth  March. —  Lady  Gregory  came  to  see  me  and  talked  much 
about  Ireland.  She  has  now  become  a  strong  Nationalist,  and  has  been 
busying  herself  about  the  demonstrations  for  '  '98.'  If  I  were  well 
enough  I  would  go  over  for  them  in  May. 

"  George  is  much  put  out  at  the  inaction  of  our  Government  in 
China,  where  there  is  a  combination  of  Russia,  France,  and  Germany 
against  us,  and  at  the  general  failure  of  Lord  Salisbury's  policy  as  a 
check  to  the  British  Empire.  He  asked  me  why  I  wished  ill  to  the 
British  Empire.  I  said,  '  because  we  had  done  too  much  harm  in  the 
world,  and  though  the  other  nations  of  Europe  also  do  harm,  they 
are  not  able  to  do  it  so  effectively  as  we  do  through  their  lack  of 
knowledge,  and  of  those  qualities  that  make  of  Englishmen  an  admin- 
istrating race,  also  because  the  Empire  is  a  poor  cockney  affair  invented 
hardly  twenty  years  ago  to  the  ruin  of  our  position  as  an  honest 
Kingdom  at  home.'  I  remember  well  the  disgust  of  George's  father 
and  of  other  old-fashioned  Tories,  when  Disraeli  first  foisted  on  them 
the  Queen's  brummagem  Imperial  title.' 

"  3m  March. — '  The  Chronicle '  has  a  sensational  but  probably  true 
account  of  an  ultimatum  sent  by  the  American  President  to  Spain  on 
account  of  Cuba.  It  seems  likely  to  lead  to  war.  If  so  I  hope  that 
Spain  may  be  able  to  hold  her  own,  not  that  Cuban  independence  lacks 
my  sympathy,  but  because  between  Spain  and  the  United  States  I  am 
obliged  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  older  and  more  barbarous  country. 
The  Yankees  as  the  coming  race  of  the  world  would  be  worse  even 
than  ourselves. 

"  ist  April. —  At  five  to-day  Lady  Gregory  brought  me  the  poet 
Yeats,  an  Irish  mystic  of  an  interesting  type.  He  is  tall,  lean,  dark, 


1898]  Yeats  Experiments  Magically  291 

good  looking,  of  the  same  type  of  countenance  as  John  Dillon's,  very 
narrow  between  the  eyes  and  short-sighted.  We  talked  much  about 
the  '  '98 '  demonstrationes  of  which  he  is  organizer,  and  of  the  coming 
doom  of  England,  and  we  talked  also  of  another  mystical  poet  and 
patriot,  Russell,  (A.  E.),  with  whom  Yeats  was  a  fellow  student  at 
Dublin.  Russell,  in  order  to  subdue  his  will,  became  cashier  in  a 
haberdasher's  shop,  where  he  acquired  repute  as  an  accountant,  but 
always  spent  his  Sundays  and  holidays  in  the  Wicklow  Hills,  writing 
poetry  and  seeing  visions.  Russell  has  now  been  removed  to  a  higher 
sphere  as  political  organizer.  Both  believe  in  ghosts  and  fairies  and 
in  the  transmigration  of  souls,  and  have  magic  powers  of  seeing  the 
future  and  of  prophecy. 

"  Yeats  experimented  magically  on  me.  He  first  took  out  a  note- 
book and  made  what  he  called  a  pyramid  in  it  which  was  a  square  of 
figures,  then  he  bade  me  think  of  and  see  a  square  of  yellow  as  it 
might  be  a  door,  and  walk  through  it  and  tell  him  what  I  saw  beyond. 
All  that  I  could  see  at  all  clearly  was  that  I  seemed  to  be  standing  on 
a  piece  of  green,  rushy  grass,  in  front  of  me  a  small  pool  from  which 
issued  two  streams  of  very  blue  water  to  right  and  to  left  of  me.  He 
then  bade  me  turn  and  go  back  through  the  door,  and  told  me  I  should 
see  either  a  man  or  woman  who  would  give  me  something.  I  failed 
to  see  anything  but  darkness,  but  at  last  with  some  effort  I  made  out 
the  indistinct  figure  of  a  child,  which  offered  me  with  its  left  hand 
some  withered  flowers.  I  could  not  see  its  face.  Lastly  he  bade  me 
thank  the  person  to  whose  intervention  the  vision  was  due,  and  read 
from  his  notebook  some  vague  sentences  prefiguring  this  vision.  The 
performance  was  very  imperfect,  not  to  say  null. 

"  $th  April. —  Arthur  Balfour  made  his  statement  in  the  House 
to-day  of  the  Government's  China  policy.  George  tells  me  the  speech 
was  '  statesmanlike,'  but  I  gather  from  him  that  it  was  no  very  pro- 
nounced success.  Indeed,  how  should  it  be?  The  British  Govern- 
ment has  leased  Wei-hai-wei,  which  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  second  best 
to  Port  Arthur,  but  of  no  very  practical  value  for  coercing  Pekin  as  it 
cannot  easily  be  connected  with  it  by  land.  I  should  have  thought 
it  would  have  been  wiser  either  to  make  an  alliance  with  Japan  and 
war  with  Russia,  or  else  to  let  the  whole  thing  severely  alone,  but 
George  thinks  Japan  has  already  been  squared  by  Russia. 

"  6th  April. —  I  had  a  bad  return  of  pain  which  lasted  all  night  until 
twelve  to-day  when  I  took  an  infinitesimal  dose  of  morphia,  which  at 
once  stopped  it  and  raised  me  from  the  depths  of  misery  to  the  state  of 
happiness  of  a  schoolboy  just  loosed  from  school. 

"  9//i  April. —  There  is  an  announcement  in  the  papers  of  'A  great 
British  victory  in  the  Soudan  —  Gordon  avenged.' 

"  nth  April. —  Saighton.     I  came  here  for  the  Easter  holiday,  arriv- 


292  The  Tichborne  Claimant  Dead  [1898 

ing  in  a  miserable  plight  of  pain,  but  to-morrow  Sibell  (Lady  Gros- 
venor)  is  to  take  me  to  Holywell  to  be  bathed  by  the  miraculous  foun- 
tain there  for  my  cure.  Some  Vandals,  calling  themselves  the  Town 
Council,  are  claiming  the  well  which  they  want  to  let  to  a  soda  water 
company  at  £500  a  year,  but  George  intends  to  oppose  this  in  Parlia- 
ment. There  is  nobody  here  but  the  family,  including  little  Percy 
and  Bendor,  the  latter  grown  into  a  very  nice  young  man.  George  has 
been  entertaining  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  at  my  rooms  in  Mount  Street 
while  I  was  away,  using  them,  I  fancy,  as  a  place  of  secret  communi- 
cation between  the  Government  and  Rhodes,  whom  they  dare  not 
publicly  avow. 

"  I  see  the  old  Tichborne  claimant  is  dead,  asserting  his  rights  to 
the  last.  Certainly  there  was  something  about  the  man  not  wholly 
vulgar.  I  saw  a  good  deal  of  him  at  Buenos  Ay  res  in  1868,  and, 
though  a  mountain  of  flesh  and  of  no  very  refined  clay,  he  seemed  to 
me  a  gentleman  born,  gone  down  in  the  world,  rather  than  a  mere 
plebeian.  Richard  Burton,  who  was  there  at  the  same  time,  and  who 
travelled  across  the  Pampas  with  him  in  the  Mendoza  diligence,  be- 
lieved in  him  as  authentic  at  the  time,  and  so  we  all  did.  I  remember 
seeing  him  once  involved  in  some  vulgar  dispute  in  a  cafe,  while  play- 
ing billiards,  and  he  seemed  to  me  to  behave  as  a  gentleman  would 
have  done  under  somewhat  trying  circumstances,  and  now  they  have 
buried  him  with  considerable  pomp  and  a  coffin  plate  recording  his 
baronetcy,  attended  by  the  licensed  victuallers  who  supported  him  as 
a  show  in  his  last  days. 

"  i2th  April. —  I  have  been  to  St.  Winifred's  well  at  Holywell. 
After  a  very  bad  night  of  pain  I  nevertheless  made  up  my  mind  not 
to  put  off  the  visit.  Fortified  with  a  dose  of  morphia  I  set  out  with 
Sibell  and  George.  We  went  by  train  from  Chester,  passing  not  far 
from  Hawarden,  where  the  G.O.M.  lies  dying,  and  the  sands  of  Dee. 
We  were  fortunate  in  our  day,  which,  though  wild  at  starting,  turned 
into  a  perfect  spring  afternoon.  Sibell  had  written  to  Father  Beau- 
clerk,  the  Jesuit  at  Holywell,  to  expect  us,  but  he  was  away.  I  was 
glad  of  it,  as  thus  I  was  free  to  bathe  as  a  plain  pilgrim  without  re- 
ligious supervision.  I  suppose  no  pilgrim  ever  washed  there  with  less 
Christian  faith  and  at  the  same  time  with  so  little  of  the  mocking 
spirit.  I  have  a  belief  in  holy  places  and  holy  people  quite  apart  from 
all  religious  creeds,  and  I  felt  a  great  confidence  in  the  Saint  that  she 
would  do  me  good.  We  arrived  at  the  best  moment  of  the  day,  at 
one  o'clock  when  everybody  was  away  at  dinner,  so  that  we  were  alone 
and  there  was  no  difficulty  in  that  sweet  old  place  in  supposing  our- 
selves back  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  girl  in  charge  of  the  gate 
gave  me  two  towels,  and  I  had  brought  a  nightgown  with  me,  and  so 
plunged  in.  It  was  cold  work,  though  the  water,  they  say,  is  52 


1898]  I  Bathe  in  St.  Winifred's  Well  293 

degrees,  but  I  did  the  traditional  three  journeys  through  the  water  up 
to  my  armpits,  going  down  into  it  by  steps  and  up  the  opposite  side, 
and  then  took  a  complete  dip  over  my  head  in  the  outer  tank  and  knelt 
on  St.  Bruno's  stone.  I  was  quite  alone  while  doing  this,  except  for 
George.  Then,  when  I  had  dressed,  we  sat  awhile  together  in  the 
sun,  and  went  on  to  the  inn  for  luncheon,  where  Sibell  was,  and  so 
home  in  the  afternoon  to  Saighton.  The  buildings  of  the  well  are 
still  almost  perfect,  the  shrine  just  as  it  was  put  up  in  Henry  VII's 
time,  not  a  stone  of  the  pavement  renewed  nor  anything  of  the  modern 
kind  except  some  wooden  dressing  sheds  and  a  few  stupid  scrolls  with 
texts  hung  up  inside  the  shrine. 

"  i$th  April. —  I  have  had  no  pain  all  day,  thanks  to  St.  Winifred, 
a  long  night  of  sleep  and  to-day  no  pain.  I  spent  the  afternoon  with 
Sibell,  talking  about  the  chances  of  life  and  death  and  of  a  world  be- 
yond. The  longer  I  live,  the  less  I  believe  in  any  such,  at  least  as 
far  as  my  own  living  again  goes.  I  feel  that  I  have  worn  out  my  vital 
force  and  that  eternity  can  bring  me  nothing  but  a  dreamless  sleep. 
All  the  same,  I  believe  in  St.  Winifred  and  her  Well,  and  include  her 
in  my  canon  prayer  as  my  patron  saint,  which  I  have  a  right  to  do, 
seeing  that  I  was  named  after  my  great-grandmother,  Winifred 
Scawen." 

My  miraculous  cure  thus  wrought  did  not  last  long.  I  had  no  sooner 
turned  my  back  to  St.  Winifred  and  Saighton  than  my  pains  began 
again,  and  I  began  to  think  that  the  Saint  had  made  a  fool  of  me.  I 
saw  new  doctors  in  London,  but  they  were  unable  to  help  me,  and 
after  lingering  on  there  until  the  6th  of  May  I  went  down  to  New- 
buildings  to  bear  my  troubles  alone.  "  The  world,"  I  wrote,  "  is  only 
meant  for  those  who  are  in  health,  and  the  maxim  of  our  forefathers 
was  a  sound  one,  that  a  dying  man  should  keep  wholly  out  of  sight." 
This  was  the  last  entry  in  my  diary  before  the  crisis  came.  On  the 
following  Sunday,  after  a  night  of  great  suffering,  I  broke  a  blood- 
vessel, and  for  a  week  or  more  lay  in  danger  of  death,  nursed  by  the 
careful  hands  of  the  good  Cowie,  our  housekeeper,  and  of  Sydney 
Cockerell,  who  had  just  entered  on  his  duties  with  me  as  my  private 
secretary.  Between  them  and  my  hospital  nurse,  Miss  Lawrence,  who 
then  first  undertook  my  charge,  they  saved  my  life.  Then  I  recognized 
that  St.  Winifred  had  only  deferred  her  benefits,  and  that,  as  in  the 
case  of  most  miracles,  she  had  chosen  a  natural  road  of  cure.  How- 
ever that  might  be,  the  cure,  though  it  nearly  killed  me,  was  an  in- 
disputable one.  The  pain  from  which  I  had  been  suffering  so  long 
had  left  me  desperately  weak,  it  is  true,  in  body  but  clear  in  mind, 
and  able  once  more  to  take  an  interest  in  life,  and  at  the  end  of  three 
weeks  to  resume  my  diary.  The  first  entry  I  find  in  it  contains  the 
following: 


294  Death  of  Burne- Jones  [1898 

"  2&th  May. —  To-day  Mr.  Gladstone  is  being  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

"  6th  June. —  Cockerell  is  a  treasure,  arranging  my  books  and  get- 
ting me  others.  He  is  full  of  interesting  recollections  of  Morris. 
Apropos  of  the  lovely  little  Kelmscott  volume,  containing  '  The  Night- 
ingale and  the  Cuckoo,'  he  assures  me  that  Morris  had  never  heard  the 
nightingale  sing,  and  that  he  used  to  complain  of  it;  also  what  seems 
even  more  incredible,  that  he  had  not  read  the  poem  through,  and  was 
waiting  to  do  so  for  it  to  be  in  print.  The  proof-sheets  came  the  day 
he  died,  and  he  never  read  them.  We  are  putting  the  new  bookplate 
into  our  Kelmscott  books,  where  it  looks  a  natural  part  of  the  volumes 
as  the  bookplate  was  cut  by  the  man  Morris  employed  for  his  armorial 
designs.  Cockerell  has  been  of  the  greatest  use  to  me,  arranging  my 
papers  and  giving  me  new  interests  in  life.  I  have  written  several 
Sonnets  and  an  inscription  in  verse  for  the  table  Mrs.  Morris  gave 
me ;  my  mind  is  vigorous  and  clear."  [The  table  here  referred  to  was 
the  dining-table  used  by  Morris  and  his  family  when  they  lived  at 
the  Red  House,  and  given  to  me  by  Mrs.  Morris  when  she  was  dis- 
persing her  furniture  on  leaving  her  house  in  Hammersmith.] 

In  the  meantime  Anne  and  Judith  had  returned  from  Egypt.  They 
had  been  lingering  on  at  Paris,  but  had  been  hastened  back  by  my  illness, 
and  were  now  in  London,  having  taken  a  house  there  for  Judith's 
London  season. 

"  igth  June. —  Burne- Jones  is  dead.  This  is  a  vast  misfortune.  He 
was  to  have  painted  Judith  as  one  of  the  figures  for  his  last  picture, 
'  The  Vale  of  Avalon,'  but  that  will  never  now  be.  According  to  his 
wish  he  is  to  be  cremated,  and  then  buried  at  Rottingdean.  It  is  an 
honour  for  Sussex  that  it  should  hold  his  ashes. 

"  $th  July. —  Percy  Wyndham,  who  has  been  down  to  see  me,  tells 
me  that  he  had  spent  the  afternoon  with  Burne- Jones  two  days  before 
he  died.  Burne- Jones  was  in  the  highest  possible  spirits,  playing  at 
'  Bear '  with  Pamela's  children.  Later,  however,  a  friend  had  dined 
with  him,  to  whom  he  had  talked  gloomily  of  the  prospects  of  the  world 
and  of  the  human  race.  The  friend  had  remarked  that  no  one  should 
have  such  pessimistic  views  who  was  not  an  atheist.  To  which  Burne- 
Jones  had  exclaimed,  '  Thank  God,  we  are  not  that.'  He  had  been 
taken  ill  suddenly  in  the  night,  and  had  died  in  half-an-hour.  With 
Madeline,  too,  I  have  had  much  conversation  about  Burne-Jones.  She 
had  written  me  a  beautiful  letter  about  him  and  Morris,  and  had  asked 
me  to  write  a  sonnet  for  her  about  them.  '  I  should  like  it  better,'  she 
says  in  it,  '  than  anything  else  you  could  possibly  do  for  me,  and  you 
are  the  only  person  almost  who  could,  if  even  you  can,  and  I  will  wait 
no  matter  how  long  for  it,  and  if  I  depart  from  this  life  from  pure  old 
age  while  waiting,  well,  I  shall  hope  that  then  I  shall  be  even  better  able 


1898]  Death  of  Bismarck  295 

to  appreciate  it  in  my  future  and  next  development  than  now.  But, 
for  the  sake  of  the  world,  a  sonnet,  something  beautiful  about  them, 
ought  to  be  written.  Such  writings  act  as  beautiful  reflectors  to  the 
divine  light  (that  immortals  such  as  those  two  were)  have  left  to  the 
world,  in  the  beauty  of  their  work,  it  directs  the  eyes  of  those  that 
knew  them  not,  to  see  and  know  them,  for  the  world  in  some  ways  is  so 
dark  that  even  the  Divine  Light  needs  a  reflector  or  glasses  to  guide  the 
eyes,  the  spiritual  eyes,  darkened  eyes  I  had  rather  say,  for  it  is  the 
darkened  eyes  in  the  human  race,  not  the  darkened  world  that  pre- 
vents them  seeing  and  knowing  the  glorious  divine  light  and  beauty  that 
is  in  this  world,  only  few  see  it,  either  in  Nature  or  Art.  Some  are 
blind,  hopelessly  blind,  others  have  films  on  their  eyes,  but  they  can  be 
removed.  At  first  they  only  see  trees  as  men  walking,  but  finally  they 
can  see,  see  and  so  live,  but  they  at  first  require  glasses  and  reflectors, 
and  artificial  means  of  help,  and,  to  my  mind,  Poetry  can  be  and  is  the 
art  of  all  others  that  helps  us  most  in  this  world  to  see.  Each  divine  art 
acts  as  a  guide  and  reflector  to  the  other;  Poetry  helps  Music,  Music 
Poetry,  both  cast  light  and  concentrate  it  on  the  other  arts.'  This  sug- 
gested the  sonnet  I  have  since  published,  and  which  begins ;  '  Mad  are 
we  all,  maids,  men,  young  fools  alike  and  old.' 

"  i$th  /M/3'.— Wotton.  I  find  Evelyn  with  strong  Spanish  sym- 
pathies in  the  war  that  is  going  on,  on  the  same  grounds  with  mine. 
The  papers  announce  the  news  of  the  surrender  of  Santiago  de  Cuba  on 
honourable  terms,  and  there  is  great  talk  of  peace  being  made,  but  I 
doubt  its  being  near.  Spain  has  less  to  lose  than  America  by  going  on 
with  the  war,  her  colonies  being  practically  already  gone,  and  Europe 
being  almost  certain  to  prevent  a  Yankee  'invasion  of  Spain.  The  fin- 
anciers who  inspire  the  Press  call  out  however,  for  it,  and  would  have 
it  made  at  any  price,  as  it  is  injuring  trade. 

"  2nd  August. — P>ismarck  is  dead.  My  only  personal  recollection 
of  him  is  of  meeting  him  at  old  Lord  Brougham's  in  Grafton  Street. 
Lady  Malet,  who  was  Brougham's  stepdaughter,  some  say  his  natural 
daughter,  asked  me  to  tea  alone,  to  meet  him,  and  he  came  and  stopped 
talking  with  us  very  pleasantly  for  an  hour.  He  had  been  an  old  ad- 
mirer of  Lady  Malet's  when  they  had  been  together  diplomatically  at 
Frankfort,  and  they  were  still  on  very  intimate  terms.  This  may  have 
been  in  1862.  My  memory  of  him  is  of  a  tall  rather  thin  man,  with 
agreeable  manners,  and  talking  English  perfectly.  At  that  time  some- 
what of  an  Anglomane.  he  was  still  unrecognized  by  the  general  public 
of  Europe  as  a  great  statesman.  Indeed,  he  was  laughed  at  in  Ger- 
many for  his  reactionary,  out-of-date  opinions,  and  was  not  a  little  un- 
popular with  the  masses.  If  he  had  failed  to  win  at  Sadowa,  he  would 
certainly  have  been  torn  to  pieces  by  the  Berlin  mob.  Lady  Malet  had 
always  the  fullest  faith  in  his  genius. 


296  The  Battle  of  Omdurman  [1898 

"  gth  September. —  On  Monday  the  6th  news  came  of  the  defeat  of 
the  Khalifa  and  the  taking  of  Omdurman,  and  with  it  of  Hubert 
Howard's  death,  my  only  friend  there  and  almost  the  only  one  on  our 
side  to  lose  his  life.  The  slaughter  of  the  Dervishes  seems  to  have 
been  premeditated  and  ruthlessly  carried  out.  When  I  was  at  Bramber 
the  other  day  Button  told  me  that  '  a  heavy  butcher's  bill '  had  been 
ordered,  as  it  was  intended  to  make  the  avenging  of  Gordon  a  chief 
feature  of  the  business.  Telegraphic  communication  with  England  was 
on  this  account  stopped  (the  excuse  being  that  the  wires  had  been 
broken  by  a  storm)  lest  any  order  of  moderation  should  come,  and  as 
far  as  I  can  read  the  despatches  since  received,  there  must  have  been  a 
wholesale  massacre  of  the  wounded  and  fugitives.  The  figures  given 
to-day  are  ten  thousand  counted  corpses,  sixteen  thousand  wounded, 
who  have  crawled  away  to  the  river  or  the  desert,  and  three  hundred 
or  four  hundred  more  killed  in  the  town  of  Omdurman  after  the  fight, 
and  only  three  thousand  to  four  thousand  prisoners ! ! !  As  Button  told 
me,  '  the  performances  of  Tommy  Atkins  in  the  way  of  killing  at  At- 
bara  (a  few  days  before  the  fight  at  Omdurman),  passed  everything 
ever  heard  of.  He  was  like  a  raging  wild  beast.'  One  may  be  pretty 
sure  that  orders  were  given  to  spare  none. 

"  All  this  has  moved  my  bile  to  the  point  that  I  have  written  in  pro- 
test to  the  '  Times,'  but  I  doubt  if  they  will  print  my  letter.  The  whole 
country,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  Press,  has  gone  mad  with  the  lust  of 
fighting  glory,  and  there  is  no  moral  sense  left  in  England  to  which  to 
appeal.  It  is  hideous  but  unmistakable. 

"  Hubert's  death  is  pitiful.  There  was  nothing  in  the  world  to  take 
him  there,  for  he  was  not  in  the  army,  nothing  but  a  boyish  whim.  He 
dined  with  Anne  and  Judith  in  London  almost  the  night  before  he 
started,  and  told  them  he  was  determined  to  fight.  He  was  a  delightful 
boy,  with  a  ringing,  merry  laugh  it  did  one  good  to  hear,  and  he  had 
considerable  abilities,  and  the  best  of  hearts,  and  he  ends  in  a  blind  alley 
of  Omdurman  a  paid  servant  of  the  '  Times.' 

"  loth  September. —  My  letter  to  the  '  Times  '  is  printed,  which  is 
more  than  I  expected.  I  am  curious  to  see  whether  it  raises  an  echo 
anywhere,  but  as  yet  no  voice  has  spoken  in  any  London  paper,  except 
that  Miss  Gordon  protests  in  her  brother's  name  against  his  being 
'  revenged.'  A  queer  Christian  country  ours !  On  the  other  hand 
there  has  been  an  outbreak  in  Crete,  a  Moslem  mob  has  risen  against  a 
party  of  English  marines  sent  by  the  Admiral  to  raise  the  custom  dues, 
and  some  have  been  killed,  and  the  British  Vice-Consulate  has  been 
burnt,  and  Cretan  Christians  massacred,  Edhem  Pasha  and  the  Turkish 
garrison  looking  on." 

One  characteristic  letter  was  written  to  me  at  this  time,  apparently 
by  a  parson ;  it  says,  "  By  a  curious  coincidence  an  answer  to  your  let- 


1898]  Herbert  Spencer  Proposes  a  Poem  297 

ter  in  the  '  Times '  of  yesterday  is  given  in  one  of  the  Psalms  for  this 
morning's  service,  viz.,  Psalm  Iviii,  verses  10-11:  'The  righteous 
shall  rejoice  when  he  seeth  the  vengeance;  he  shall  wash  his  footsteps 
in  the  blood  of  the  ungodly,  so  that  a  man  shall  say,  Verily,  there  is  a 
reward  for  the  righteous,  doubtless  there  is  a  God  that  judgeth  the 
earth."  A  more  important  letter,  however,  was  to  follow  from  no  less 
a  personage  than  Herbert  Spencer.  Spencer  was  not  at  the  time  known 
to  me  personally,  nor  had  I  at  that  time  ranked  myself  among  his  dis- 
ciples, and  the  letter  came  to  me  as  a  surprise.  It  reached  me  4th 
October. 

"  4th  Oct. —  A  most  interesting  letter  has  come  to  me  from  Herbert 
Spencer  on  the  subject  of  my  letter  about  Omdurman,  and  mentioning 
also  an  article  on  my  poem,  'The  Wind  and  the  Whirlwind.'  [This 
article,  I  afterwards  learned,  was  by  Francis  Thompson.]  Spencer 
has  long  looked  out,  he  says,  for  a  poet  who  should  write  a  poem,  the 
main  lines  of  which  he  sketches  in  his  letter  and  he  asks  me  to  undertake 
it.  (It  was  to  be  a  dialogue  in  Heaven  after  the  manner  of  Goethe's 
'  Faust,'  between  God  and  Satan.  Satan  complaining  that  mankind  has 
surpassed  him  in  wickedness,  sacrificing  to  Thor  and  Odin  while 
nominally  sacrificing  to  Jehovah.)  I  wish  I  could  think  myself  capable 
of  doing  this  with  any  effect,  but  I  am  too  hopeless  of  getting  such  a 
subject  listened  to  at  the  present  moment  and  too  little  believing  in  the 
divine  government  of  the  world." 

This  led  to  a  correspondence  between  me  and  the  philosopher  and 
eventually  to  my  undertaking  to  write  a  poem,  "  Satan  Absolved,"  more 
or  less  on  the  lines  suggested.  In  a  second  letter,  dated  6th  October, 
Spencer  writes :  "  My  beliefs  are  pretty  much  as  pessimistic  as  those 
you  express.  .  .  .  Did  I  think  that  men  would  remain  in  the  far  future 
anything  like  what  they  now  are  I  should  contemplate  with  equanimity 
the  sweeping  away  of  the  whole  human  race."  [For  the  first  letter  see 
Appendix  III.] 

"  i2th  Oct. —  A  visit  from  Mrs.  Meynell  and  her  husband,  and 
Francis  Thompson  at  Newbuildings.  I  had  invited  them  to  come  for 
the  night,  but  Meynell  had  explained  that  this  was  impossible,  '  the  poet 
(Thompson),  having  an  inconvenient  habit  of  setting  his  bed  on  fire.' 
They  came  down,  however,  for  the  day.  I  met  them  at  the  station,  a 
very  lovely  day,  and  as  we  drove  through  the  woods  Meynell  pointed 
out  to  me  that  '  the  poet  of  nature  '  was  wholly  absorbed  in  the  '  Globe  ' 
newspaper  he  had  brought  down  with  him  in  the  train,  such  being  the 
way  with  London  poets.  Thompson,  though  born  in  Lancashire  and 
speaking  English  with  a  broad  provincial  accent,  is  a  true  Cockney. 
He  is  a  little  weak-eyed,  red-nosed  young  man  of  the  degenerate  Lon- 
don type,  with  a  complete  absence  of  virility  and  a  look  of  raptured 
dependence  on  Mrs.  Meynell  which  is  most  touching.  He  is  very  shy, 


298  The  Fashoda  Quarrel  [1898 

but  was  able  to  talk  a  little  when  the  general  conversation  was  not  too 
loud,  and  he  seems  good-hearted  and  quite  unpretending.  He  has  writ- 
ten no  poetry,  Meynell  tells  me,  now  for  some  years,  being  cured  of  his 
morphia.  But  Meynell  thinks  the  fountain  may  some  day  break  forth 
again.  Meanwhile,  he  gets  a  living  by  literary  criticism  in  the  '  Acad- 
emy '  and  other  journals.  When  we  all  went  out  after  luncheon  to  the 
woods,  I  found  him  quite  ignorant  of  the  names  of  the  commonest  trees, 
even  the  elm,  which  he  must  have  seen  every  day  in  London.  I  pointed 
one  out  to  him,  and  he  said,  '  I  think,  a  maple.'  On  the  whole,  how- 
ever, I  liked  him,  for  he  was  quite  simple  and  straightforward.  Only, 
it  was  difficult  to  think  of  him  as  capable  of  any  kind  of  strength  in 
rhyme  or  prose.  Meynell  has  greatly  improved  conversationally  with 
years,  and  has  become  a  most  agreeable  man.  Thanks  to  him,  the  visit 
was  a  pleasant  one  and  they  all  went  home  in  spirits. 

"  i$th  Oct. —  All  this  week  has  been  one  of  excitement  over  the 
quarrel  with  France  about  Fashoda.  A  Blue  Book  has  been  published 
giving  the  English  case,  and,  imperial  plunder  being  in  question,  all 
parties,  Tories,  Whig,  Radical,  Churchmen,  and  Nonconformist  have 
joined  in  publicly  extolling  English  virtue  and  denouncing  the  French. 
For  myself  I  see  nothing  in  it  more  respectable  than  the  wrangle  of 
two  highwaymen  over  a  captured  purse,  morally  both  sides  are  on  a 
level.  The  English  position  in  the  case  is  that  there  has  long  been  a 
scheme  of  appropriating  the  Soudan  with  all  the  Upper  Nile  to  the 
Lakes  —  this,  in  anticipation  of  the  event  which  must  some  day  happen, 
of  the  British  occupation  of  Egypt  proper  coming  to  an  end,  through 
European  intervention.  The  scheme  has  so  far  been  disguised,  and 
whenever  objection  has  been  raised,  the  Egyptian  claim  to  the  old 
Soudan  provinces  has  been  put  forward  and,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
Egyptian  army  has  been  made  use  of  to  do  the  rough  work  of  re-con- 
quest, only  now  and  then  have  there  been  indications  given  of  the  truth. 
In  the  present  Blue  Book  there  is  one  where  Lord  Salisbury  instructs 
Monson  to  declare  at  Paris  that '  By  the  military  events  of  last  week  all 
the  territories  which  were  subject  to  the  Khalifa  passed,  by  right  of 
conquest,  to  the  British  and  Egyptian  Government.'  Yet  all  the  gobe- 
mouche  press  is  ringing  the  changes  on  our  '  legality.'  And  what  a 
strange  plea  of  legality  as  towards  Egypt !  What  would  be  said  in 
private  life  if  a  guardian  and  trustee  who  had  undertaken  to  manage  the 
estate  of  a  minor,  as  we  forced  the  Egyptian  Government  in  1884  to 
abandon  the  Soudan  and  leave  it  derelict,  and  then,  the  opportunity 
having  occurred,  should  take  possession  of  those  derelict  farms  as  be- 
longing to  nobody  and  should  do  this  with  the  approval  of  the  whole 
world,  moral  and  religious !  Yesterday,  there  was  a  great  public  meet- 
ing in  favour  of  universal  peace,  and  our  leading  Nonconformists  on 


1898]  George  Wyndham  on  Fashoda  299 

the  platform  applauded  Lord  Salisbury  for  having  thus  swindled  Egypt 
and  defied  France.  We  live  in  an  odd  age. 

"  Judith's  engagement  to  Neville  Lytton  was  announced  to-day. 

"  i6th  Oct. —  I  think  very  seriously  of  the  crisis  between  England 
and  France.  It  will  likely  enough  lead  to  a  war,  for  both  sides  being 
in  the  wrong  each  naturally  sees  the  other's  wickedness  and  so  believes 
itself  right.  The  best  road  to  an  agreement  between  them  would  be 
that  each  should  give  up  its  preposterous  claim  to  the  Nile  Provinces. 
Lord  Salisbury,  among  his  many  reasons  for  renewing  the  Soudan 
campaign  three  years  ago,  said  that  the  destruction  of  the  Khalifa's 
power  would  make  it  easier  for  England  to  evacuate  Egypt.  Let  him 
keep  that  part  of  his  programme  and  France  will  be  satisfied.  Our 
people,  however,  want  war,  fancying  it  is  a  favourable  moment  for 
dealing  single-handed  with  France.  I  hope  we  shall  not  be  invaded  in 
Sussex. 

"  \"jih  Oct. —  To  Saighton.  Things  look  very  warlike  with  France, 
and  war  would  certainly  happen  if  the  position  in  Europe  were  at  all 
less  unfavourable  to  the  French,  but  as  it  is  their  Government  will 
certainly  not  risk  a  fight  if  they  can  help  it.  The  danger  lies  in  the 
weakness  of  their  Government,  in  the  long  discredit  into  which  France 
has  fallen,  and  in  the  ascendancy  of  the  army.  There  may  be  a  revolu- 
tion any  day  and  representatives  of  the  Bourbons  and  of  the  Bona- 
partes  are  announced  as  being  on  the  frontier. 

"  Arrived  at  Saighton.  I  have  had  it  out  with  George  about  Fash- 
oda. He  states  the  English  case  with  brutal  frankness.  '  The  day  of 
talking,'  he  says,  '  about  legality  in  Africa  is  over,  all  the  international 
law  there  is  there  consists  of  interests  and  understandings.  It  is  gen- 
erally agreed  by  all  the  Powers  that  the  end  of  African  operations  is  to 
"  civilize  "  it  in  the  interests  of  Europe,  and  that  to  gain  that  end  all 
means  are  good.  The  only  difference  between  England  and  France 
is  which  of  them  is  to  do  it  in  which  particular  districts.  England  in- 
tends to  do  it  on  the  Nile,  and  it  makes  no  difference  what  the  precise 
legal  position  is.  We  may  put  forward  the  Khedive's  rights  if  it  is  con- 
venient or  we  may  put  forward  a  right  of  conquest,  or  a  right  of 
simply  declaring  our  intentions.  One  is  as  good  as  another  to  get  our 
end,  which  is  the  railway  from  Cairo  to  the  Cape.  We  don't  care 
whether  the  Nile  is  called  English  or  Egyptian  or  what  it  is  called,  but 
we  mean  to  have  it  and  we  don't  mean  the  French  to  have  it.  The 
Khedive  may  be  kept  on  for  some  years  as  a  sort  of  Indian  Maharajah, 
but  it  will  end  in  a  partition  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  between  Eng- 
land, Germany,  and  Russia,  France  will  be  allowed  North-western 
Africa.  It  is  not  worth  while  drawing  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong 
in  the  matter,  it  is  a  matter  entirely  of  interest.' 


3OO  Pilgrims  to  Holywell  [1898 

"  This  of  course  is  the  true  thought  of  our  Government,  and  has  been 
for  at  least  ten  years,  but  for  the  first  time  to-day  it  is  beginning  to  be 
avowed.  George  represents  all  that  is  most  extreme,  most  outrageous, 
in  modern  English  politics,  and  it  marks  the  decline  of  the  higher  tradi- 
tions to  find  one  like  him  proclaiming  and  defending  it.  I  shall  not 
write  again  to  the  '  Times,'  I  should  only  mar  the  effect  of  my  last 
letter,  which  has  certainly  been  great,  and  do  no  good.  The  dispute 
between  France  and  England  is  a  dispute  between  rival  card  sharpers, 
and  the  very  best  thing  that  can  happen  is  that  they  should  beat  in  each 
other's  heads. 

"  iSth  Oct. —  Worked  all  the  morning  at  '  Satan  in  Heaven  '  ['  Satan 
Absolved'].  George  has  gone  up  to  London. 

"  igth  Oct. —  Made  my  pilgrimage  of  thanksgiving  to  Holywell  in 
drizzle  and  fog,  taking  my  nurse,  Miss  Lawrence,  with  me,  and  my 
crutches,  which  I  deposited  at  the  Shrine,  bound  up  with  a  nightgown 
and  a  label  thus  inscribed : 

" '  Set  here  in  thankful  token  of  a  cure  from  long  sickness  after 
bathing  in  St.  Winifred's  Well.  By  her  servant  W.  S.  B.  October  19, 


"  The  scene  inside  the  shrine  was  the  most  interesting  I  ever  saw  in 
Europe.  Three  men  were  being  passed  through  the  water  stark  naked, 
but  for  a  slight  bathing  drawer  round  the  loins,  and  each  time  after 
passing  they  knelt  on  the  pavement,  dripping  wet  and  prayed  aloud.  A 
priest  was  reciting  '  Hail  Marys,'  and  at  the  end  of  each  '  Hail  Mary,' 
'  Holy  Winifred,  still  in  an  unbelieving  age,  miraculous.'  There  were 
lighted  candles  and  flowers,  and  the  fervour  of  these  naked  men,  one 
a  mere  bag  of  skin  and  bones,  was  tremendous.  In  the  dim  light  of  a 
foggy  day  nothing  at  all  congruous  to  the  nineteenth  century  was 
visible.  It  was  a  thing  wholly  of  the  middle  ages,  the  dark  ages,  the 
darkest  of  the  dark  ages,  magnificent,  touching  —  it  brought  tears  to 
my  eyes.  I  hung  up  my  crutches  in  a  corner  with  other  relics,  and 
placed  Sibell's  flowers  which  she  had  sent  as  a  thank  offering  on  the 
altar,  and  knelt  for  some  ten  minutes  reciting  the  Penitential  Psalms. 

"  Outside  the  shrine  I  found  Father  Beauclerk,  a  young,  good-looking 
Jesuit,  but  deaf  and  afflicted  with  some  ailment,  perhaps  paralytic.  He 
told  me  that  the  Town  Council  of  Holywell  was  about  to  try  its  power 
of  closing  the  Well,  and  so  of  preventing  the  bathing,  which  has  gone 
on  here  precisely  as  it  is  to-day  since  the  rebuilding  of  the  Shrine  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII,  and  doubtless  for  many  hundred  years  before  it. 
The  true  legal  ownership  of  the  water  seems  in  doubt.  The  Duke  of 
Westminster  is  Lord  of  the  Manor,  and  granted  some  thirty  years  ago 
a  long  lease  to  the  Town  Council,  but  by  some  accident  never  signed  it. 
The  Town  Council  in  its  turn  leased  it  to  the  Jesuits,  who  put  up  a 
railing  and  established  a  charge  of  twopence  a  head  for  maintenance  of 


1898]  Regarded  as  a  Popish  Nuisance  301 

the  place.  This  charge  the  Town  Council  holds  to  have  barred  the 
free  access  of  the  public  to  the  water.  Otherwise  the  public  right  would 
seem  absolutely  clear.  Certainly  no  bather  has  been  refused  admission 
since  before  the  Norman  Conquest.  Father  Beauclerk  took  me  to  see 
one  Lambert,  an  innkeeper,  who  gave  me  further  particulars,  and  who 
agreed  if  guaranteed  in  costs  to  contest  the  matter  as  a  Holy  well  rate- 
payer and  habitual  bather.  He  tells  me  religious  feud  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  mischief.  Father  Beauclerk  has  been  imprudent  in  making  use 
of  the  Well  for  purposes  of  conversion,  and  in  running  it  as  a  religious 
show.  This  has  enraged  the  Nonconformists,  who  have  determined  to 
put  down  the  pilgrimage  as  a  Popish  nuisance.  In  order  more  com- 
pletely to  desecrate  the  Shrine  they  propose  to  lease  it  to  a  Soda  Water 
Company  at  £500  a  year,  and  close  the  Well  on  a  plea  of  sanitation. 
Lambert  himself  is  a  Protestant,  but  having  been  cured  of  sciatica  by 
bathing  there,  is  a  partisan  of  the  Well.  As  an  innkeeper,  too,  his 
interests  are  affected,  for  the  town  depends  largely  on  pilgrims  for  its 
prosperity.  It  is  clear  that  steps  must  at  once  be  taken  to  save  the 
Shrine,  and  I  gave  Father  Beauclerk  a  cheque  for  £20  towards  legal 
expenses.  He  seems,  however,  to  be  sadly  unpractical,  and  we  must 
put  the  conduct  of  the  case  into  other.hands. 

"  2Oth  Oct. — .Back  to  London,  where  I  saw  Treherne,  the  Anti- 
Scrape  lawyer,  about  St.  Winifred's,  and  also  Cockerell.  In  the  even- 
ing a  telegram  came  from  George  to  say  that  .the  Duke  of  Westminster 
would  take  action  in  the  matter,  so  that  relieves  us  of  a  great  difficulty." 


CHAPTER  XIV 
"SATAN  ABSOLVED" — THE  BOER  WAR 

"  George  is  in  high  spirits,  as  he  has  just  been  appointed  Under- 
secretary for  War,  a  less  interesting  place  than  the  Foreign  Office,  but 
still  important,  especially  at  the  present  moment.  Things  look  more 
and  more  warlike,  as  Russia  seems  to  be  backing  France,  and  I  suspect 
most  of  the  Continental  Powers  are  against  us.  It  is  impossible  Lord 
Salisbury  should  maintain  the  full  ground  he  has  chosen,  that  of  re- 
fusing to  negotiate  without  a  war.  The  French  will  not  give  in  like 
that.  The  way  out  of  the  mess  would  seem  to  lie  in  the  direction  of  a 
European  Congress,  or  at  least  of  European  intervention  in  the  interests 
of  peace.  George  says  that  the  British  fleet  has  its  programme  ready, 
and  the  French  fleet  would  be  shut  up  in  their  ports  in  a  few  days.  He 
and  the  ultra  Jingo  section  of  the  party  are  all  for  war.  He  gets  £  1,500 
a  year  by  this  appointment. 

"  22nd  Oct. —  To  Paris,  by  Newhaven  and  Dieppe,  much  the  pleas- 
antest  route.  I  have  not  travelled  by  it  since  I  landed  at  Newhaven 
in  a  storm  with  a  shipload  of  frightened  refugees  flying  from  Paris  after 
Sedan. 

"  2yd  Oct. —  Neville  came  to  breakfast  with  me,  and  later  old  Juli- 
enne, Francis  Currie's  bonne,  who  amused  us  with  her  view  of  the 
political  situation.  The  government  of  France,  she  said,  was  in  the 
hands  of  '  un  tas  de  gueux,  passez-moi  le  mot,'  who  were  pillaging  the 
country,  and  there  must  be  a  new  regime  —  Orleanist,  Bonapartist,  or 
what  ever  else,  she  did  not  care,  so  long  as  it  was  not  Dreyfusist.  As 
to  the  Fashoda  trouble,  it  was  all  the  rapacity  of  '  la  grosse  Victoire/ 
meaning  our  own  gracious  Majesty,  who  wanted  all  the  earth  for  her- 
self and  would  leave  nothing  to  poor  France.  '  Nous  sommes  bien  bas, 
allez.'  I  fancy  this  represents  pretty  fairly  the  general  opinion  at 
Paris. 

"  At  3  to  Gros  Bois,  where  I  found  our  hostess  entertaining  two 
Parisian  ladies,  dressed  up  like  Parisian  dolls,  a  ci-devant  Russian 
beauty,  the  Comtesse  de  Talleyrand,  and  Mme.  Chevreau,  her  neigh- 
bours. We  were  a  party  of  six  at  dinner,  lively  in  the  usual  French 
way,  which  means  all  talking  at  once.  I  had  some  quiet  conversation, 
however,  with  Wagram  before  the  guests  arrived.  He  refuses  to  be- 
lieve in  a  war  and  thinks  the  thing  will  be  arranged.  Russia,  if  it  came 

302 


1898]  The  Fashoda  Yellow  Book  303 

to  war,  would  fight  too,  and  we  should  be  attacked  in  India.  I  see  that 
Redmond  is  openly  declaring  himself  at  Dublin  in  favour  of  the  French, 
but  I  doubt  if  either  Ireland  or  India  is  really  attackable. 

"  24th  Oct. —  Wagram  was  away  all  day  shooting  at  Chantilly  with 
the  Due  de  Chartres.  Prince  Henri  d'Orleans  was  there  and  showed 
him  a  number  of  abusive  letters  he  had  received,  mostly  from  Ger- 
mans, in  connection  with  the  Dreyfus  case,  he  being  a  violent  anti-re- 
visionist. Wagram  brought  back  with  him  in  the  evening  the  Fashoda 
Yellow  Book  just  published. 

"  2$th  Oct. —  The  new  Yellow  Book  gives  a  much  more  dignified 
form  to  the  French  argument  than  it  has  received  in  our  Blue  Book, 
and  I  consider  that,  logic  for  logic,  M.  de  Courcel  has  the  best  of  it. 
It  is  also  clear  that,  as  I  suspected,  Lord  Salisbury  has  been  negotiating, 
though  it  is  equally  clear  that  he  has  allowed  his  back  to  be  stiffened  by 
the  London  Press  and  his  colleagues'  speeches  and  Lord  Rosebery's. 
The  French  terms  are  now  pretty  fairly  formulated.  They  will  evacu- 
ate Fashoda  on  being  allowed  to  keep  the  Bahr  el  Gazal  with  access  to 
the  White  Nile.  A  Cabinet  has  been  called  in  London  for  to-morrow, 
when  a  final  decision  will  be  come  to.  In  face  of  the  extraordinary  out- 
burst of  Jingo  violence  in  England  I  doubt  such  terms  being  accepted 
and  war  seems  probable;  nobody,  however,  here  seems  of  that  opinion. 

"  M.  Hanotaux,  late  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  M.  Vandal 
were  here  to-day  and  I  had  much  conversation  with  both.  Neither 
would  hear  of  war  for  such  a  trifle  as  Fashoda.  M.  Hanotaux  main- 
tained that  no  war  would  be  popular  in  France,  that  nobody  knew  where 
Fashoda  was,  or  cared  three  straws  about  the  Marchand  Mission.  He 
even  considered  the  Egyptian  question  itself  one  of  small  importance  for 
France.  As  for  the  Bahr  el  Gazal,  it  was  '  a  country  inhabited  by 
monkeys  and  by  black  men  worse  than  monkeys.'  A  war  with  England 
over  such  a  dispute  would  be  worse  than  a  crime,  a  folly.  He  was  of 
opinion  that  such  a  war  would  ruin  both  countries.  It  would  last  two 
years ;  it  would  be  carried  on  interminably  because  neither  could  vitally 
attack  the  other.  '  I  admit/  he  said,  '  that  your  fleet  may  destroy  ours, 
that  you  may  blockade  our  ports,  and  that  we  could  not  land  troops  in 
England,  but  what  then?  You  could  not  touch  us  in  France,  or  even 
in  Algeria  or  Tunis ;  it  would  ruin  your  trade  and  leave  you  at  the  end 
worse  off  than  ourselves.  You  would  find  yourselves  faced  by  a  triple 
coalition.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  possibility  of  war.'  I  told  him  of  the 
military  fever  we  were  suffering  from  in  England,  but  he  refused  to 
believe  that  Lord  Salisbury,  who  was  '  un  homme  d'Etat,'  who  looked 
at  the  future,  would  quarrel  to  this  extent  with  France,  England's  only 
possible  ally,  for  any  such  cause. 

"  I  asked  him  about  the  Army,  what  its  feeling  was,  what  line  it  would 
take?  '  The  French  Army,'  he  said,  '  is  always  ready  to  fight  when  the 


304  Nobody  in  France  Wants  to  Fight  [1898 

word  is  given,  but  it  does  not  busy  itself  with  politics,  and  will  not  in- 
tervene to  force  on  any  policy.  It  can  be  counted  on  absolutely  to 
obey  its  orders,  whether  for  peace  or  war.  No  war  would  be  popular 
now  in  France,  and  there  was  no  such  military  fever  now  here  as  I 
had  described  in  England.'  He  added,  however,  that  if  the  Army  at 
any  time  found  a  leader  in  any  popular  general  who  should  become 
Minister  of  War,  the  situation  might  change,  the  public  might  easily 
become  excited.  If  an  appeal  were  made  to  it  by  the  Government 
against  England  then  the  Army  would,  doubtless,  show  its  readiness  to 
fight.  The  Dreyfus  case  was  also  discussed.  Vandal  and  Wagram 
were  against  revision,  Berthe  and,  cautiously,  Hanotaux  for  it.  This 
was  continued  between  Berthe  and  Wagram  to  the  point  of  violence 
all  the  evening,  Wagram  maintaining  that  there  were  secret  pieces  of 
evidence  which  if  made  public  would  ruin  the  Army  and  ruin  France, 
Berthe  that  no  conceivable  evidence  could  have  such  effect,  the  only 
people  to  be  ruined  being  the  General  Staff.  Personally  I  am  much 
charmed  by  Hanotaux,  who  talks  well  on  many  subjects  and  without 
display  of  vanity.  He  has  a  pleasant  regard  and  a  sympathetic  voice. 
He  gave  me  his  views  on  architecture  and  art  and  talked  to  me,  as 
knowing  him,  of  Herbert  Spencer.  Vandal  also  talked  well,  but  is  less 
interesting.  Both  are  academicians. 

"  26th  Oct. —  The  Brisson  Ministry  has  resigned  and  all  is  confusion 
in  Paris.  This  will  probably  ease  the  tension  towards  England  and 
make  a  peaceful  solution  more  possible. 

"  M.  et  Mme.  Sommier,  the  owners  of  Vaux,  and  a  Mme.  de  Brie 
came  to  luncheon.  Sommier  is  a  man  of  cultivation  and  intelligence, 
who  has  taken  in  the  '  Times '  newspaper  for  years  so  as  to  get  news 
of  the  outside  world,  a  rare  circumstance  in  France.  Like  all  the  rest 
he  says  war  is  impossible  for  such  a  trifle  as  Fashoda,  that  France  is 
not  prepared  for  war,  and  that  nobody  wants  to  fight. 

"  27th  Oct. —  Three  men  arrived  to  shoot  pheasants,  M.  Chevreau, 
Comte  de  Gontaut  Biron,  and  Comte  de  Kergoulet,  all  men  of  great 
intelligence  and  good  talkers  as  well  as  good  fellows.  We  shot  in  the 
forest  beyond  the  park,  but  had  no  great  sport.  In  the  evening  there 
was  an  excellent  political  discussion,  turning  principally  on  the  over- 
throw of  the  Brisson  Ministry  and  the  chances  of  their  succession. 
They  think  it  probable  that  Delcasse  will  remain  at  the  Affaires 
Etrangeres.  None  of  them  will  hear  of  a  war  with  England,  in  which 
they  say  they  would  be  beaten.  My  neighbour  at  dinner,  M.  de  Kerg- 
oulet, a  young  Breton  gentleman  of  old  family,  did  not  scruple  to  say 
they  would  withdraw  from  the  Nile  and  apologize  rather  than  that. 
None  of  the  party,  except  Wagram,  expressed  any  very  different  senti- 
ment. I  proposed  as  a  bridge  of  escape  from  an  impossible  situation 
that  the  French  Government  should  express  its  willingness  to  acknowl- 


1898]  Alsace-Lorraine  305 

edge  Egypt's  right  to  the  whole  of  the  Nile  provinces,  but  not  the  right 
of  England.  I  believe  that  this  would  practically  save  them  from  their 
dilemma  without  loss  of  honour,  and  would  leave  the  Nile  question  for 
a  more  favourable  moment  for  raising  it  in  conjunction  with  the  whole 
Egyptian  question.  The  question  of  Alsace-Lorraine  was  also  de- 
bated, and  it  was  generally  admitted  that  there  must  be  sooner  or  later 
prescription,  a  limit  of  time  beyond  which  resentment  could  not  be  con- 
tinued, though  that  time  had  not  yet  come.  But  for  this  the  German 
alliance  was  what  would  be  most  advantageous  to  France  and  a  coalition 
against  England.  I  asked  them  whether  they  thought  it  true  that  the 
Emperor  William  had  proposed  such  a  coalition  two  years  ago,  and 
they  said  it  was  most  probable,  but  not  certain.  Such  a  coalition  was 
impossible  at  present  on  account  of  the  sentiment  about  the  lost  prov- 
inces, and  nations  live  by  sentiment,  it  was  the  mainstay  of  their 
patriotism.  I  had  it  on  the  tip  of  my  tongue  to  say  patriotism  is  the 
virtue  of  nations  in  decay,  but  I  felt  that  that  would  be  hardly  civil, 
though  the  aphorism  would  be  a  good  one.  [A  better  one  would  be, 
'patriotism  is  the  virtue  of  weak  nations,  it  is  the  vice  of  the  strong.'] 

"  M.  de  la  Siseranne  was  also  of  our  party,  an  excellent  talker  like 
the  rest,  but  with  more  pose,  as  one  would  expect  from  his  position  as 
conferencier  and  dogmatic  art  critic,  a  shock-headed  man  faille  en 
brosse,  less  attractive  than  the  others.  He  was  strong  on  the  point  of 
the  time  being  nearly  come  when  the  animosity  about  Alsace-Lorraine 
could  be  decently  buried.  '  There  is,'  he  said,  '  prescription  for  all 
things,  one  does  not  now  refuse  one's  hand  to  the  descendant  of  him 
who  guillotined  one's  ancestors  in  1793,'  meaning,  no  doubt,  Carnot. 

"  2S>th  Oct. —  To  Paris  on  my  way  home.  Called  on  Abu  Naddara, 
who  gave  me  some  details  of  the  Marchand  mission.  Marchand  had 
come  to  him  three  years  ago  to  ask  his  advice  about  penetrating  to  the 
Upper  Nile,  and  how  to  make  friends  with  the  Khalifa,  and  he  (Sanua) 
had  given  him  papers  inscribed  with  texts  from  the  Koran,  and  as  I 
understood  him,  introductions  from  one  or  two  persons  at  Omdurman. 
Marchand's  idea  was  to  go  and  make  friends  with  the  Mahdists  and 
help  them  against  England.  He  was  certainly  sent  by  the  French 
Government.  Sanua  is  severe  on  the  stupidity  of  French  diplomacy, 
and  considers  France  very  low  down  in  the  scale  of  European  nations. 
He  told  me  a  good  deal  about  his  visit  to  the  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid, 
who  had  received  him  with  all  honour,  and  allowed  him  to  speak  frankly 
and  openly  about  affairs.  He  says  the  Sultan  is  acquiring  an  immense 
prestige  from  the  Emperor  Wilhelm's  visit,  which  is  everywhere  in  the 
East  regarded  as  an  act  of  homage.  It  was  Abdul  Hamid  who  first 
suggested  to  the  Emperor  to  get  rid  of  Bismarck.  On  his  first  visit  to 
Constantinople  they  were  talking  about  Bismarck's  great  power  in 
Europe,  and  the  Sultan  said,  '  I  should  not  like  to  have  so  powerful  a 


306  Abdul  Hamid  Instructs  Wilhelm  [1898 

servant,  would  your  Majesty  like  to  see  how  I  treat  mine?'  William 
said,  '  Yes.'  Abdul  Hamid  then  touched  a  bell,  and  when  the  attendant 
entered  said,  '  Send  for  Kiamil,'  the  then  Grand  Vizier.  Instantly 
horsemen  were  despatched  at  a  gallop  through  the  city  seeking  the 
Minister,  who  presently  appeared  and  stood,  with  head  bowed  and 
folded  hands,  before  them.  The  Sultan  for  awhile  took  no  notice,  and 
let  him  stand,  then  casually  '  You  need  not  wait,  it  is  of  no  consequence, 
go,'  and  the  Grand  Vizier  went.  William  took  this  lesson  to  heart,  and 
dismissed  his  Chancellor  hardly  less  brusquely. 

"  Dined  with  Neville  and  his  friend  Geoffroi,  a  young  fellow  art 
student  of  a  modest  serious  kind  at  the  hotel  where  I  was  their  enter- 
tainer. We  discussed  art,  literature,  and  politics.  The  young  man  is 
rather  socialistic,  hates  the  army,  in  which  he  is  just  about  to  be  obliged 
to  serve,  and  is  a  Dreyfusard.  He  assures  me  military  service  is  most 
unpopular,  and  war  still  more  so.  It  is  clear  nobody  in  France  will 
take  up  the  quarrel  thrust  on  them  by  us  over  Fashoda. 

"  2()th  Oct. —  Back  to  England.  To-day  it  is  announced  that 
Marchand  has  left  for  Cairo,  so  the  quarrel  solvitor  ambulando. 

"  yd  Nov. —  Newbuildings.  Knowles  has  agreed  to  my  writing  on 
the  Fashoda  affair  in  the  '  Nineteenth  Century,'  but  says  he  hopes  I 
will  not  forget  the  motto  which  is  his,  '  my  country  right  or  wrong.' 
What  absurdity !  One  would  think  that  England  was  a  poor  struggling 
nationality,  oppressed  by  a  strong  neighbour,  and  in  need  of  the  help 
of  all  her  sons,  not  what  she  is,  the  mill  in  which  all  the  nations  are 
being  ground. 

"  4th  Nov. —  Anne  and  Judith  left  for  Egypt,  I  staying  on  in  Eng- 
land for  the  winter.  Lunched  with  George  Wyndham  at  Willis's 
Rooms,  where  he  is  near  his  work  at  the  War  Office.  We  discussed 
the  Fashoda  business  about  which  there  will  certainly  not  be  war, 
George  said.  Also  that  our  Government  had  squared  the  Emperor 
William.  The  Duke  of  Devonshire  and  Henry  Chaplin  were  lunching 
at  another  table,  and  greeted  George  as  '  dear  George.'  Of  Chamber- 
lain, George  said,  'He  is  for  war  at  any  price.'  He  (Chamberlain) 
has  just  come  back  from  America,  where  they  are  going  through  the 
same  absurd  military  fever  that  we  are  here. 

"  ^th  Nov. —  At  Newbuildings  with  Cockerell.  Delcasse  has  made 
his  climb  down  about  Fashoda,  certainly  a  pitiful  one,  which  reduces 
France  almost  to  the  level  of  a  second-class  Power.  The  Emperor  Wil- 
liam meanwhile  has  been  touring  it  in  Syria,  and  making  speeches  at 
Jerusalem.  I  fancy  his  concurrence  with  English  policy  has  been 
bought  by  some  promise  of  recognizing  him  as  the  Sultan's  protector 
with  a  future  reversion  of  the  Holy  Land.  Our  Jingo  papers,  especially 
the  '  Chronicle,'  have  been  clamouring  for  the  annexation  of  Egypt,  or 
at  least  the  declaration  of  an  English  Protectorate,  but  that  is  probably 


1898]  How  They  Make  Bishops  307 

not  within  the  limits  of  Lord  Salisbury's  present  agreement  with 
Wilhelm. 

"  <)th  Nov. —  Left  Newbuildings  for  Gorsey  End,  near  Lyndhurst, 
for  the  winter,  driving  in  beautiful  weather  by  Rogate,  where  we  are 
being  entertained  by  Hugh  Wyndham  and  his  daughter  Florence,  stop- 
ping also  to  call  on  Charles  Wyndham  at  Midhurst.  Hugh,  talking  of 
the  agreement  with  Waddington  made  in  1878  at  the  Berlin  Congress 
in  regard  to  Tunis,  told  me  that  he  had  had  it  from  Odo  Russell  that 
the  thing  was  transacted  at  the  British  Embassy.  Odo  Russell  had 
said  to  him,  '  You  must  be  prepared  for  some  startling  moves,'  and  told 
him  what  had  happened.  This  was  soon  after  the  agreement."  [Sir 
Hugh  Wyndham  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Berlin  Embassy  at  the 
time.] 

The  whole  of  this  winter  I  spent  in  the  New  Forest,  having  been 
advised  to  go  there  for  my  health,  as  I  could  get  easy  hunting  there, 
and  so  be  much  out  of  doors.  My  principal  friend  in  the  neighbourhood 
was  Sir  William  Harcourt  at  Malwood,  whom  I  saw  frequently,  but 
otherwise  I  was  much  cut  off  from  political  society,  though  I  went  up 
now  and  then  to  London.  At  Lyndhurst  I  was  busy  writing  my 
poem,  "  Satan  Absolved." 

" 2Oth  Nov.  (Sunday). —  To  luncheon  at  Malwood.  Sir  William  in 
excellent  form,  principally  about  the  bishops,  with  whom  he  is  now  in 
violent  conflict.  He  narrated  to  us  a  conversation  he  had  had  with  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire  as  to  the  nomination  to  a  bishopric.  The  Duke's 
account  of  it  was  this:  'He  had  written  two  letters  to  Salisbury, 
recommending  a  fellow,  he  couldn't  remember  the  fellow's  name,  and 
Salisbury  hadn't  even  answered.  He  had  written  because  Courtney  and 
another  fellow,  he  couldn't  remember  his  name  either,  had  wanted  it.' 
On  inquiry  it  had  turned  out  that  the  proposed  nominee  was  Page 
Roberts,  and  Sir  William  had  taken  an  opportuniy  of  asking  Lord  Salis- 
bury why  he  hadn't  made  Page  Roberts  a  Bishop.  '  The  fact  is,'  said 
Salisbury,  '  I  thought  they  were  talking  of  Page  Hopps,  and  we  gave 
it  to  some  one  else.'  '  That,'  said  Sir  William,  '  is  the  way  they  make 
bishops.'  Our  luncheon  was  quite  a  feast,  as  Lady  Harcourt  has  a  very 
good  cook.  Rawnsley  and  his  wife  were  there. 

"  22nd  Nov. —  Knowles  has  returned  me  my  article  on  '  Fashoda,' 
on  the  plea  of  its  being  too  late,  and  that,  besides,  it  would  not  be  wise 
to  publish  it,  doubtless  the  true  reason. 

"  28//1  Nov. —  Cromer  has  consented  to  give  Judith  away  at  her 
wedding  if  I  am  prevented  from  being  present.  This  is  as  it  should  be, 
for  personally  I  have  always  been  on  pleasant  terms  with  Cromer,  much 
as  we  may  tilt  politically. 

"  $rd  Dec. —  To  London,  where  I  saw  George  Wyndham.  He  tells 
me  they  had  a  tremendous  dinner  a  few  nights  ago,  all  the  Under-Sec- 


308  Fareivell  Dinner  to  Curzon  [1898 

retaries,  at  which,  after  the  consumption  of  much  champagne,  they 
toasted  each  other  as  '  the  youth  of  the  day  and  the  future  Cabinet  of 
1910.'  All  were  present  except  Austin  Chamberlain,  who  had  been  run 
over  by  a  cab. 

"  8th  Dec. —  Basil  Blackwood  came  to  breakfast  with  me  in  Mount 
Street,  just  back  from  a  shooting  expedition  in  East  Africa.  He  gave 
me  an  account  of  it,  as  well  as  of  Hubert  Howard's  death.  He  and 
Hubert  had  been  very  close  friends.  Basil  is  a  nice  youth,  not  a  little 
like  what  his  father  was  when  he  was  young. 

"  loth  Dec. —  I  have  been  buying  books  with  Cockerell's  help  at 
Morris's  sale,  his  '  Gerarde's  Herbal,'  a  Berner's  '  Froissart,'  and  Ma- 
lory's '  King  Arthur/  the  Copland  edition  of  1557,  the  last  a  book  to  lie 
always  on  one's  table. 

"  Last  night  there  was  given  a  great  private  dinner  to  George  Curzon, 
at  which  most  of  the  ladies  who  are  our  friends  were  present.  [This 
was  a  farewell  dinner  to  Lord  Curzon  of  Kedlestone  on  his  departure 
for  India  as  Viceroy.  I  have  an  amusing  letter  from  Curzon  of  that 
date,  as  member  of  the  Crabbet  Club,  excusing  himself  for  accepting 
an  office  which,  according  to  our  Rules,  entailed  a  resignation  of  mem- 
bership, but  I  cannot  print  it  here.]  Both  George  Wyndham  and 
Sibell  gave  me  an  account  of  the  feast.  He,  George  Wyndham,  recited 
a  poem  he  had  written  for  the  occasion.  Hugo  (Elcho)  proposed 
Curzon's  health  in  a  speech  which  George  declared  beat  even  his 
(Hugo's)  record,  and  Curzon's  reply  was  also  most  amusing.  No 
pressmen  were  invited  except  Harry  Cust,  if  he  can  still  be  called  one. 
It  is  described  in  the  evening  papers  as  a  '  congregation  of  the  Order  of 
the  Souls.' 

"  i6th  Dec. —  The  event  of  the  day  is  Harcourt's  retirement  from  the 
leadership  of  the  Liberal  party.  The  true  reason  of  his  retirement  is 
the  conversion  of  the  whole  party,  or  at  least  the  whole  Liberal  Press, 
to  Jingo  Imperialism.  I  wrote  yesterday  to  congratulate  him  on  his 
published  letter.  To-day  I  have  a  line  from  him  in  answer.  He  says : 
'  Anche  io  have  escaped  out  of  gaol  and  am  a  free  man.'  I  hope  now 
that  his  tongue  and  Morley's  will  be  let  loose  to  attack  the  militarism  of 
the  day,  of  which  Rosebery  is  the  most  outrageous  champion.  They 
will  have  plenty  to  say  and  will  give  dissentients  heart.  There  must 
be  a  few  lovers  of  liberty  left  in  England,  but  for  the  moment  they 
have  no  voice  more  powerful  than  Labouchere's.  I  consider  Har- 
court's retirement  a  distinct  gain  for  liberty,  if  not  for  Liberalism. 

"  ijth  Dec. —  To  London  on  business,  and  dined  at  the  '  Travellers,' 
where  I  was  introduced  by  d'Estournelles  to  his  new  Ambassador, 
Cambon.  I  had  a  long  talk  with  the  latter  about  desert  travelling,  and 
my  adventure  at  Siwah.  Having  mentioned  that  I  was  at  Paris  at  the 
time  of  the  late  crisis  they  asked  me  '  which  crisis,'  and  I  without  think- 


1898]  Cambon  the  New  French  Ambassador  309 

ing  said  '  the  crisis  of  Fashoda.'  Cambon's  countenance  fell  at  the 
word,  and  he  changed  the  conversation,  though  heaven  knows  I  meant 
no  harm.  It  is  arranged  between  d'Estournelles  and  me  that  I  should 
get  up  a  little  dinner  at  Mount  Street  for  the  Ambassador  after  the 
Jour  de  I' An,  but  I  fear  I  should  disappoint  d'Estournelles'  expecta- 
tions. He  counts,  among  other  inducements,  upon  my  inviting  Lady 
Galloway,  who,  being  Lord  Salisbury's  sister,  he  thinks  would  interest 
Cambon.  He  wants  Cambon  to  make  a  good  impression  in  English 
society.  When  he  finds  out  how  little  I  am  a  persona  grata  with  the 
Government  he  will  probably  be  less  keen  for  my  assistance ;  however, 
that  is  their  affair.  [N.B.  Cambon  had  been  sent  to  England  after 
the  Fashoda  affair  and  the  change  of  Ministry  at  Paris,  expressly  to 
bring  about  a  good  understanding  between  France  and  England,  and  in 
this  he  succeeded  admirably.  I  believe  it  to  have  been  due  to  him  more 
than  to  any  other  Frenchman,  except  perhaps  Delcasse,  that  the  En- 
tente Cordiale  was  come  to  four  years  later  with  the  withdrawal  of  all 
French  opposition  to  England  in  Egypt.  It  is  probable  that  at  the 
time  of  Fashoda  an  understanding  was  come  to  between  Lord  Salisbury 
and  Delcasse  for  the  partition  of  North  Africa.  England  to  have  the 
East,  France  the  West,  Germany  and  Russia  to  be  eventually  allowed 
the  spoil  of  Turkey  and  Persia.  The  full  development  of  the  plan 
being  put  off  till  the  death,  when  it  should  happen,  of  Sultan  Abdul 
Hamid.] 

"  igth  Dec. —  Old  Lord  Napier  and  Ettrick,  Mark's  father,  is  dead. 
He  was  a  man  of  distinction,  and  no  small  ability.  He  was  for  many 
years  in  diplomacy,  and  was  then  sent  as  Governor  to  Madras.  The 
last  I  saw  of  him  was  six  or  seven  years  ago,  when  I  was  at  the  Glen. 
His  chief  achievement  in  life  was  the  making  of  Mark. 

"  26th  Dec. —  I  have  been  staying  at  the  Danes  for  Christmas,  a 
family  party.  To-day  we  drove  over  to  North  Mimms,  to  make  ac- 
quaintance with  Loulou's  financec.  North  Mimms,  a  beautiful  old 
place,  but  turned  inside  out  by  a  Victorian  architect,  who  has  been  let 
loose  on  it  regardless  of  expense.  Loulou's  new  relations  are  Ameri- 
cans, the  young  lady  simple  and  unaffected,  and  tenderly  attached  to 
Loulou." 

I  ended  the  year  1898  at  Ockham  with  Ralph  and  Mary,  more  happily 
than  was  its  beginning.  "  The  first  four  months  were  of  exceeding 
physical  pain  with  the  final  breakdown,  followed  by  a  great  contentment 
of  mind  and  body.  That  great  act  of  abdication,  '  the  taking  to  one's 
deathbed,'  teaches  one  the  value  of  the  smaller  pleasures  of  life.  In- 
tellectually I  still  feel  growth,  and  while  growth  continues  one  is  not 
yet  old.  Judith's  marriage  has  been  an  event  of  supreme  satisfaction. 

"  ist  Jan.,  1899. —  I  am  back  at  Lyndhurst.  Lady  Lytton  tells  me 
that  the  Queen  was  greatly  opposed  to  Neville's  marrying  before  he 


3io  /  Try  Sir  William  Har court's  Temper  [1899 

came  of  age,  and  that  her  Majesty  is  constantly  inquiring  about  the  date 
of  the  wedding,  and  has  been  soothed  by  being  told  that  Neville  will 
at  least  be  twenty  on  his  wedding  day. 

"  4th  Jan. —  To  Malwood,  where  I  had  a  long  talk  with  Sir  William 
Harcourt  about  the  line  he  ought  to  take  as  an  independent  member  of 
the  Opposition.  He  told  me  that  he  intended  to  bring  forward  the 
whole  anti-Imperial  case  on  grounds  of  economy.  I  told  him  that  I 
did  not  think  he  would  get  much  following  that  way.  Nobody  cared 
enough  about  economy  to  be  enthusiastic  over  it.  I  thought  he  would 
have  more  success  if  he  gave  his  opposition  a  moral  basis,  exposing  the 
demoralization  of  England  through  the  violence  and  bloodshed  Im- 
perialism entailed,  the  fraud,  lying,  and  hypocrisy,  and  the  growth  of 
militarism.  Carried  away  by  my  argument  I  pressed  him  so  closely 
that  he  almost  lost  his  temper,  and  as  a  final  word  said :  '  Well,  what 
you  say  may  be  true,  but  this  is  my  plan,  and  I  mean  to  stick  to  it.' 
Lady  Harcourt,  however,  who  was  there,  took  my  side,  and  afterwards 
made  me  go  with  her  upstairs  to  see  her  boy  Bobby,  and  repeat  to  him 
my  argument.  '  It  will  do  him  good,'  she  said,  '  for  he  is  just  at  a 
moment  of  crisis  when  a  very  little  may  turn  his  ideas  one  way  or  the 
other.'  I  found  the  boy  in  bed  with  a  cold,  writing  his  views  on  politics 
in  a  copy-book,  and  I  turned  my  eloquence  on  him.  Old  Sir  William's 
ill-humour  was  almost  pathetic,  and  did  not  last  long,  and  Lady  Har- 
court said  to  me  as  we  went  upstairs,  '  He  will  not  really  mind,  and  he 
will  remember  what  you  said  when  you  are  gone.'  Really  there  never 
was  a  moment,  when  a  man  with  convictions  and  some  knowledge  of 
foreign  affairs,  could  do  more  in  England. 

"  Bennett,  one  of  the  military  correspondents  in  the  Soudan,  has  writ- 
ten a  powerful  article  in  the  '  Contemporary,'  exposing  the  barbarity 
of  the  war,  about  which  all  the  country  has  been  shouting  triumph,  and 
about  Gordon  College  at  Khartoum.  The  British  public  are  paying  to 
ease  their  consciences  for  the  incredible  slaughter  of  Omdurman. 

"  6th  Jan. —  The  run  of  the  season  with  the  New  Forest  deer  hounds, 
in  pursuit  of  an  old  roebuck  from  Lady  Cross  Lodge  right  across  the 
open  heath  of  Beaulieu  plain,  very  fast  to  the  far  side,  when  he  turned 
back  and  again  faced  the  open.  About  the  middle  of  the  plain,  on  his 
second  journey,  he  lay  down,  and  jumped  up  in  the  middle  of  the 
hounds,  racing  away  for  two  miles  in  view  with  the  pack  at  his  heels 
to  Hackett  Pond,  where  he  took  the  water  and  swam  for  ten  minutes 
with  the  pack  after  him,  and  out  again,  and  was  run  into  and  killed  in 
the  open.  They  say  they  never  had  so  good  a  run  before.  It  lasted 
seventy-five  minutes.  I  was  riding  Mahruss,  who  carried  me  in  the 
front  rank  all  the  way,  the  only  heavy  weight  that  went  fairly  with  the 
hounds. 

"  Jth  Jan. —  Cromer  has  made  a  speech  to  the  Soudanese  Sheykhs  at 


1899]  Ruling  the  Soudan  311 

Khartoum,  declaring  they  will  now  be  ruled  by  the  Queen  of  England 
and  the  Khedive  of  Egypt.  This  lets  the  cat  out  of  the  bag.  I  was 
quite  sure  the  thing  was  in  contemplation  from  the  reticence  of  Lord 
Salisbury.  All  these  weeks  he  has  been  allowing  the  rest  of  his  Cabinet 
to  make  altruistic  speeches  about  the  Soudan  having  been  '  reconquered 
for  Egypt/  but  has  been  mute  himself,  remaining  by  his  telegram  to 
Monson.  The  high  moral  nature  of  the  transaction  has  been  appealed 
to  by  every  newspaper  in  England  notwithstanding  Bennett's  exposure 
of  the  atrocities  of  the  campaign.  I  have  written  to  congratulate  Ben- 
nett on  his  courage. 

"  i$th  Jan. —  Indoors  all  day  writing  about  the  new  settlement  in  the 
Soudan.  It  is  ludicrous  to  follow  the  antics  of  the  so-called  Liberal 
papers,  the  '  Chronicle,'  the  '  Westminster  Gazette,'  and  the  rest,  in 
their  endeavour  to  make  the  seizure  of  the  Upper  Nile  for  England  fit 
in  with  their  moral  heroics  about  England's  duty  of  '  reconquering  it 
for  Egypt.'  What  they  don't  understand  is  that  Lord  Salisbury  was 
very  quietly  playing  with  them.  He  was  delighted  at  the  time  of  his 
ultimatum  to  France  to  get  the  support  of  the  Radical  Press,  and  he  let 
them  run  on  to  their  hearts'  content  about  England  being  Egypt's  trustee 
and  the  Nile  being  Egypt  and  Egypt  being  the  Nile  —  that  was  Rose- 
bery's  phrase  —  and  it  pleased  him  that  the  Nonconformist  conscience 
should  call  heaven  and  earth  to  witness  what  a  moral  and  unselfish 
nation  we  were,  and  how  abominable  were  the  French,  who  would 
pilfer  Egypt's  inheritance.  He  was  glad  to  get  the  support  of  the 
Exeter  Hall  people  and  the  bishops  and  the  clergy  by  letting  them 
boast  of  the  evangelical  missions  they  were  going  to  start  at  Khartoum, 
all  the  while  having  up  his  sleeve  this  card  of  Kitchener's,  English 
Viceroyalty  of  the  Soudan  in  the  name  of  Her  Gracious  Majesty  and 
a  strictly  Mohammedan  Protectorate.  The  world  are  fools,  or  rather, 
they  ask  to  be  deceived,  and  deceived  they  are.  The  '  Chronicle '  will 
very  soon  come  fully  into  line  with  the  '  Telegraph,'  and  find  it  an  ex- 
ceedingly clever  trick  to  have  made  a  cat's-paw  of  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment in  English  interests.  What  can  be  more  amusing  than  to  add  the 
Upper  Nile  to  the  British  Empire,  and  make  the  Egyptian  fellah  pay 
for  his  conquest  and  maintenance,  the  profit  being  wholly  for  England. 
Meynell  tells  me  that  when  Sir  William  Butler  (who  is  his  brother- 
in-law)  met  Kitchener  on  his  arrival  at  Dover,  he  said  to  him,  'Well, 
if  you  do  not  bring  down  a  curse  upon  the  British  Empire  for  what  you 
have  been  doing,  there  is  no  truth  in  Christianity.'  Kitchener  only 
stared. 

"  i^th  Jan. —  Drove  to  Abbotsworthy  to  stay  with  George  Lefevre,1 
where  we  have  had  a  deal  of  talk  about  politics.  Lefevre  is  of  opinion 
that  Rosebery's  retirement  from  the  Leadership  of  the  Liberal  party 

1  Now  Lord  Eversley. 


The  Modern  Practice  of  Confession  [1899 

was  resolved  on  by  him  with  the  idea  that  he  could  get  Lord  Salisbury's 
succession,  if  not  as  Unionist  Prime  Minister,  at  least  as  Unionist 
Foreign  Secretary.  This  is  likely  enough.  We  went  to  look  at  St. 
Cross  and  the  Cathedral  at  Winchester.  The  old  '  brother '  at  St. 
Cross,  one  Joyce,  who  acted  as  showman,  was  describing  to  us  the 
mechanism  of  an  ancient  confessional  in  the  wall  of  a  church  there, 
and  I  asked  him,  '  Do  you  hold,  sir,  with  the  modern  practice  of  con- 
fession?' His  answer  was  amusing.  '  Modern  confession,  sir.  I  was 
taking  a  lady  round  the  church  last  week,  and  when  we  came  to  this 
'ole  in  the  wall,  I  invited  her  inside.  "  Now,  Madam,"  I  said,  "  have 
you  nothing  to  confess  to  me?"  And  she  was  a  pretty  woman,  sir. 
"  I  confess,"  said  she,  "  that  I  'ave  been  in  'ere  alone  with  you  quite 
long  enough."  That's  my  idea  of  modern  confession  and  you  may  let 
Sir  William  'Arcourt  know  it  with  my  compliments.' 

"  i$th  Jan. —  Back  to  Lyndhurst,  stopping  on  the  way  at  Malwood 
for  luncheon.  Sir  William  is  immensely  pleased  with  my  confessional 
story,  which  exactly  hits  his  humour.  Loulou  was  there,  and  Bobby, 
the  younger  boy,  and  we  had  a  great  discussion  about  poetry  and  poets. 
I  expounded  to  them  the  glories  of  Malory's  '  Morte  d'Arthur.' 

"  2Oth  Jan. —  The  papers  give  the  text  of  a  convention  made  between 
Cromer  and  Boutros  Pasha  —  a  leonine  convention  indeed.  The  text, 
however,  shows  it  less  of  an  annexation  than  Cromer's  speech  sug- 
gested. As  far  as  I  can  read  its  meaning  it  would  become  legally  in- 
operative if  England  evacuated  Egypt,  for  it  provides  only  '  a  system 
for  the  administration  and  making  of  laws  .  .  .  giving  effect  to  the 
claims  which  have  accrued  to  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  Government  by 
right  of  conquest  to  share  in  the  present  settlement  and  future  working 
and  development  of  the  said  system  of  legislation.'  This  can  hardly  be 
construed  into  sovereign  rights.  Nevertheless,  it  is  practically  as  bad 
as  possible  for  Egypt,  for  it  will  saddle  on  her  the  whole  cost  and 
labour  of  the  war  of  reconquest  not  yet  completed  and  make  her  budget 
responsible  for  Soudan  deficits. 

"  2ist  to  2yd  January. —  At  Hewell.  I  have  made  friends  here  with 
Rowton  and  have  talked  Egyptian  and  other  matters  over  with  him. 
He  is,  of  course,  a  Jingo  of  the  Jingoes,  as  becomes  a  courtier  of  the 
Queen  and  Disraeli's  once  private  secretary,  but  he  can  talk  without 
asperity  even  on  the  delicate  subject  of  the  British  flag  at  Khartoum. 

"  2nd  Feb. —  To-day  is  Judith's  wedding  day.  I  came  up  to  London 
and  joined  Edith  Lytton  and  the  family  dinner  party,  where  we  drank 
the  health  of  bride  and  bridegroom.  Edith  had  with  her  a  telegram 
from  Her  Majesty  expressing  sympathy,  and  later  another  saying  that 
she  had  telegraphed  to  Lord  Cromer  asking  for  news  of  the  wedding 
and  giving  his  reply,  'marriage  duly  performed!  This  Her  Majesty 
had  underlined  to  show,  Edith  explained,  her  disappointment  at  the 


1899]  Kitchener  Digs  Up  the  Mahdi's  Body  313 

baldness  of  the  answer.  The  Queen,  she  said,  would  have  liked  some- 
thing gushing,  but,  of  course,  Lord  Cromer  treated  it  merely  in  an 
official  way  and  would  go  to  no  expense.  Both  telegrams  were  signed 
'  V.R.I./  which,  Edith  says,  is  always  Her  Majesty's  signature  now. 
I  thought  the  '  I '  had  been  reserved  for  communications  east  of;  Suez, 
but  the  Queen  is  pleased  with  her  title  of  Empress  and  uses  it  always. 
She  has  shown  great  interest  in  the  marriage  all  through. 

"  7th  Feb. —  The  '  Times  '  publishes  my  Soudan  letter  in  a  prominent 
place,  and  as  to-day  is  the  opening  of  Parliament  it  may  perhaps  do 
good.  Nubar  Pasha  is  dead,  and  they  are  giving  him  a  public  funeral 
at  Alexandria,  while  all  the  English  papers  are  full  of  his  praises,  yet 
this  wily  Armenian  arrived  penniless  in  Egypt  fifty  years  ago  and  has 
made  four  millions  out  of  his  various  tenures  of  office.  For  this  he  is 
applauded  by  the  London  Press  as  an  Egyptian  patriot  and  statesman. 
He  was  unable,  I  believe,  so  much  as  to  talk  Arabic. 

"  I2th  Feb. —  Lord  Salisbury  has  given  certain  explanations  in  the 
House  of  Lords  about  the  Soudan  which  are  better  than  nothing,  but 
the  Opposition  is  too  flabby  to  push  him  farther  than  he  condescends 
to  go. 

"  i6th  Feb. —  Called  at  44,  Belgrave  Square,  where  Mary,  Pamela 
and  Madeline  are  sitting  for  their  portraits  in  a  group  to  Sargent.  It 
is  being  painted  in  the  drawing-room.  In  the  background  there  will 
be  their  mother's  portrait  by  Watts. 

"  igth  Feb.  (Sunday). —  Faure,  the  French  President,  is  dead,  and 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  excitement  over  the  event,  but  I  do  not  anticipate 
anything  final  at  present.  The  chiefs  of  the  Army  would  like  to  over- 
throw the  Republic,  but  in  the  absence  of  any  popular  candidate  for  the 
throne,  they  are  afraid  to  move.  The  rank-and-file,  especially  the  con- 
scripts, would  not  follow  them. 

"  22nd  Feb. —  I  have  been  helping  to  get  up  an  agitation  against  the 
Parliamentary  grant  of  £30,000  to  Kitchener,  and  questions  have  been 
asked  in  the  Commons.  Brodrick  admits  the  digging  up  of  the  Mahdi's 
body  and  the  throwing  it  into  the  Nile,  and  they  are  bringing  further 
questions  about  the  mutilation,  that  is  to  say,  about  young  Bill  Gordon's 
having  cut  the  head  off  to  keep  as  a  '  curio.'  The  whole  thing  is  revolt- 
ing—  a  piece  of  military  revenge  for  the  death  of  Gordon  and  the 
defeat  of  Wolseley  and  excused  now  on  the  absurd  plea  of  its  having 
been  '  a  necessity  in  view  of  the  possibility  of  a  fanatical  revival.' 
What  makes  the  desecration  worse  is  that  Sir  Herbert  Stewart's  grave 
had  remained  all  these  years  untouched  in  the  desert  where  he  fell,  but 
the  Liberal  front  bench  is  ready  to  condone  every  horror,  being  more 
Jingo  than  the  Jingoes. 

"  24th  Feb. —  To  the  House  of  Commons  for  the  Soudan  debate 
which  was  led  by  Morley,  ably  and  courageously.  I  heard  Grey  speak 


314  Pierre  Loti  at  Constantinople  [1899 

in  good  parliamentary  style,  but  without  eloquence,  the  Tories  applaud- 
ing him.  [He  had  become  Under-Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs  under 
Rosebery.] 

"  26th  Feb. —  Morley's  speech  reads  well  in  the  '  Times,'  and  is 
founded  for  the  most  part  on  my  letter  published  a  fortnight  ago. 
There  is  to  be  a  separate  debate  about  the  desecration  of  the  Mahdi's 
tomb. 

"  ist  March. —  Gave  a  dinner  to  the  two  Ambassadors,  Cambon  and 
Staal  —  with  Margot,  Lady  Windsor,  and  Mrs.  Benson  for  other 
guests ;  it  was  very  gay,  thanks  to  Margot,  who  talked  imperfect  French 
with  great  courage  and  volubility,  and  amused  us  all.  Staal  was  as 
usual  witty  and  charming,  and  after  dinner  Cambon,  who  is  a  bit  of  a 
poseur,  sat  on  a  sofa  between  two  of  the  ladies,  telling  stories  of  Pierre 
Loti  and  his  fabulous  love  adventures.  Loti,  when  at  Constantinople, 
had  made  the  acquaintance  of  an  Armenian  lady  of  the  half  world,  and 
on  that  slender  foundation  of  romance  built  up  his  tale  of  an  intrigue 
with  the  Turkish  inmate  of  a  harem  of  the  Eyub  quarter  who  died  of 
jealousy  for  his  sake.  So  successfully  had  he  done  it  that  he  had  con- 
vinced himself  of  its  truth,  and  to  the  point  that  when  he  returned  to 
Constantinople,  and  was  staying  at  the  French  Embassy,  he  came  in 
one  day  from  a  walk,  and  assured  Cambon,  who  knew  the  true  story, 
and  Loti  knew  that  he  knew  it,  that  he  had  just  been  to  weep  in  the 
spot  in  the  Eyub  quarter  where  he  had  been  so  happy.  He  had  found 
the  quarter  burnt,  and  the  house  reduced  to  ashes.  Cambon  assured 
us  that  Loti  did  this  in  all  good  faith,  having  been  able  to  persuade  him- 
self to  believe  in  these  bonnes  fortunes  as  things  that  had  actually 
happened. 

"  Sth  March. —  Lunched  at  the  French  Embassy.  Staal,  Maxse  and 
his  daughter,  Margot  and  others.  I  asked  Staal,  who  sat  next  to  me, 
how  it  was  that  Tolstoy  managed  to  remain  on  in  Russia,  untroubled 
by  the  Government.  He  said  it  was  entirely  due  to  the  great  literary 
position  he  held  in  Europe.  It  was  thought  wiser  to  tolerate  him  at 
home  than  to  send  him  away  to  exile. 

"  gth  March. —  George  Wyndham  came  to  see  me  this  morning,  and 
I  lunched  with  him  and  Madeline  Adeane  later  at  Belgrave  Square, 
where  we  saw  the  first  sketching  in  of  Pamela's  head  which  Sargent 
had  just  done  in  a  couple  of  hours'  work.  It  is  wonderful  as  a  likeness 
and  as  a  bit  of  rapid  execution,  giving  just  her  playful  prettiness,  and 
the  peculiar  wave  of  her  hair,  a  sketch  in  the  manner  of  Velasquez, 
with  exactly  his  strong  touches,  unintelligible  when  looked  close  into, 
but  alive  when  seen  at  a  distance.  Mary,  too,  has  been  sketched  in  not 
unsuccessfully,  and  Madeline  less  well.  It  should  make  a  remarkable 
picture,  probably  Sargent's  best.  He  is  to  be  allowed  no  licence  with 
the  magentas  and  mauves  he  loves.  I  met  him  on  the  doorstep  as  he 


1899]  Watts  Paints  My  Portrait  315 

was  going  out,  a  rather  good  looking  fellow  in  a  pot  hat,  whom  at  my 
first  sight  I  took  to  be  a  superior  mechanic. 

"  loth  March. —  By  early  train  to  Guildford  to  sit  to  Watts.  (It  had 
been  arranged  for  me  by  Madeline  Wyndham  that  Watts  should  do 
my  portrait,  a  special  favour  he  accorded  her  in  deference  to  their 
long  friendship.)  The  sittings  were  to  be  at  his  house,  about  three 
miles  off  by  the  Hogsback,  an  ornamental,  not  too  ornamented  cottage 
of  the  usual  Victorian  kind,  which  he  has  christened  '  Limnerslease,' 
much  to  his  friends'  amusement,  Cockerel  tells  me.  Burne-Jones  used 
to  call  it '  Dauber's  Den,'  '  Painter's  Palette,'  and  other  nicknames.  The 
old  man,  well  and  alert,  went  to  work  at  once  on  me,  talking  without 
interruption  the  whole  time,  and  sometimes,  finding  me  a  good  listener, 
with  eloquence,  though  he  complained  of  having  been  unable  all  his  life 
to  hit  the  right  word  in  conversation,  or  even  in  writing.  He  is  by 
nature,  he  says,  a  poet,  but  without  the  gift  of  expressing  himself 
in  any  form  of  words.  That  is  why  he  has  worked  all  his  life  to 
express  himself  in  colour,  which  after  all  he  can  only  do  imperfectly. 
He  cares  for  his  art,  and  desires  to  do  it  well,  but  principally  as  a 
means  to  his  end  of  giving  form  to  his  ideas.  He  also  wished  to  make 
these  ideas  intelligible  to  the  widest  circle  of  disciples,  and  for  this 
reason  he  has  refused  to  connect  his  art  with  any  special  epoch  or  any 
special  creed.  His  figures  are  ideal  figures,  which  will  suit  all  ages 
and  all  beliefs.  He  once  received  a  letter  from  a  woman  in  Australia, 
who  wrote  to  tell  him  that  as  a  girl  in  Manchester  she  had  found  life 
so  hard,  she  had  intended  to  die,  but  by  accident  had  seen  a  photograph 
of  his  '  Love  and  Death,'  which  had  consoled  her,  and  now  she  was 
married,  and  prosperous,  and  happy.  She  kept  the  photograph  always 
hanging  in  front  of  her  bed.  This  he  said  was  a  greater  satisfaction 
to  him  than  any  success  he  had  had  merely  as  a  painter. 

"  To  some  extent  he  blames  Burne-Jones  for  being  too  much  a  man 
of  one  age.  He  (Burne-Jones)  had  locked  himself  up  in  the  four- 
teenth century  and  had  stayed  there.  Except  for  this  he  spoke  warmly 
of  him  and  of  his  charming  qualities.  He  told  how  he  had  set  Burne- 
Jones  once  on  horseback  at  Little  Holland  House,  starting  him  to  canter 
round  a  ride  he  had  made  there,  but  he  forgot  some  hurdles  which 
had  been  put  up  and  poor  Burne-Jones  fell  off,  nor  would  he  ever  be 
persuaded  to  mount  again.  Of  Morris,  he  spoke  with  less  enthusiasm, 
and  I  fancy  there  was  a  coolness  between  them  in  later  years,  though 
formerly  he  had  seen  much  of  them  both.  His  heroes  are  Ruskin, 
Carlyle,  and  Rossetti,  and  he  quoted  '  The  lost  days  of  my  Life  '  as  the 
finest  of  all  Sonnets,  an  opinion  which  has  long  been  mine.  He  docs 
not  think  very  highly  of  Rossetti  as  a  painter,  rather  as  a  poet.  Millais 
and  Leighton  were  his  two  special  friends  among  artists,  and  how 
many  charming  and  beautiful  women!  He  spoke  more  than  once  of 


316  Watts'  Good  Sayings  [1899 

Lady  de  Vesci.  The  handsomest  head  he  had  ever  painteu  was  Sir 
Henry  Taylor's,  but  his  best  man's  portrait  he  considers  to  be  Burne- 
Jones',  his  best  woman's  portrait,  Madeline  Wyndham's.  He 
sets  greater  store,  however,  on  his  allegorical  subjects  than  on  his 
portraits. 

"nth  March, —  To  Limnerslease  again,  having  slept  the  night  at 
Milford.  To-day  we  talked  much  on  the  subject  of  the  destruction  of 
the  weak  races  by  the  strong,  and,  like  so  many  people  nowadays, 
while  deploring  it  Watts  excused  it  as  inevitable,  a  law  of  nature  and 
the  fulfilment  of  destiny.  I  thought  he  must  have  been  talking  about 
this  to  Gerald  Balfour,  whose  portrait  he  has  just  been  painting,  but 
he  told  me  how  he  had  hardly  had  any  conversation  with  Gerald  dur- 
ing their  sittings.  With  me  he  has  talked  uninterruptedly,  sometimes 
leaving  his  work  for  five  minutes  altogether  to  explain  and  illustrate 
his  arguments.  Two  of  his  illustrations  I  remember.  Speaking  of  the 
ritualistic  controversy  and  the  necessity  of  ceremony  in  all  religions, 
'  Ceremony,'  he  said,  '  is  the  substance  of  religious  belief,  it  is  what 
outline  is  in  a  picture,  it  ought  not  to  be  required,  indeed  it  does  not 
exist  in  nature,  but  it  is  often  impossible  to  understand  what  is  meant 
without  it.'  This  seemed  to  me  a  particularly  good  illustration.  Again, 
speaking  of  the  part  reason  plays  in  our  religious  ideas,  '  Here,'  he  said, 
pointing  to  his  forefinger,  '  is  sentiment,  here  is  faith,  here  is  charity, 
here  is  hope,  all  four  fingers  stand  together  on  more  or  less  equal  terms, 
yet  they  can  grasp  nothing  without  this,'  bending  down  his  thumb, 
'  which  is  reason.'  He  was  intensely  pleased  when  I  applauded  and 
said  he  had  always  thought  it  good. 

"  i2th  March  (Sunday}. —  At  Newbuildings,  gathering  the  first 
spring  flowers,  which  I  am  going  to  colour  in  my  Gerarde's  Herbal, 
the  one  bought  at  Morris's  Sale. 

"  I  have  concluded  the  purchase  of  Fernycroft  in  the  New  Forest 
from  Lord  Montagu,  31  acres  of  woodland.  It  formed  part  of  the 
hereditary  lands  of  Beaulieu  Abbey,  an  outlying  croft  where  the  monks 
kept  their  cows. 

"  I4th  March. —  Entertained  York  Powell  with  others  at  dinner. 
I  have  known  him  since  1863,  when  he  was  a  boy,  and  I  a  quite  young 
man,  travelling  in  the  Pyrenees,  but  we  have  hardly  met  since,  though 
in  correspondence  now  and  then  on  literary  and  political  subjects,  where 
we  mostly  agree.  He  was  made  Professor  of  History  at  Oxford,  some 
years  ago,  and  is  a  good  fellow,  with  a  larger  mind  than  Dons  usually 
possess. 

"  i?th  March. —  Again  at  Limnerslease.  Mrs.  Watts  took  me  to 
see  Mrs.  Hichens'  house  close  by,  where  there  is  a  portrait  of  old 
Prinsep,  the  finest  Watts  ever  did.  Indeed,  I  think  it  almost  the 
finest  portrait  ever  painted  in  England.  The  house  is  set  under  a  chalk 


1899]  A  Visit  to  Herbert  Spencer  317 

pit  looking  south,  and  screened  from  all  cold  winds.  Princess  Christian 
came  in,  but  seeing  strangers,  decamped. 

"  2^th  March. —  The  Government  has  published  a  meagre  parliamen- 
tary paper  upon  the  doings  at  Omdurman,  and  the  desecration  of  the 
Mahdi's  tomb.  Of  course  everything  is  denied,  or  made  to  appear  to 
be  denied,  except  the  fact,  which  could  not  be  concealed,  of  the  throw- 
ing of  the  Mahdi's  body  into  the  Nile.  As  to  the  killing  of  the 
wounded,  the  denial  does  not  include  the  general  order  which,  without 
doubt,  was  given  of  killing  men  lying  on  the  ground  in  battle  after 
they  had  fallen.  This  is  thought  to  be  excused  by  the  story,  much  ex- 
aggerated, of  wounded  men  getting  up  and  firing  at  our  soldiers,  but 
the  true  reason  of  the  slaughter  is  that  Kitchener  was  campaigning  on 
the  cheap,  and  did  not  wish  to  be  encumbered  with  prisoners,  and 
especially  wounded  prisoners.  This,  and  the  desire  to  have  '  a  record 
bag '  as  a  revenge  for  Gordon.  The  destruction  of  the  tomb  is  a  crime 
of  which  Kitchener  meanly  excuses  himself  by  saying  he  was  away 
when  it  was  done,  though  he  had  given  the  order,  and  for  the  political 
reason  of  preventing  the  tomb's  becoming  a  centre  of  pilgrimage,  and 
so  of  fanatical  feeling.  This  is  mere  fustian.  The  thing  was  done  to 
emphasize  the  revenge  taken,  young  Gordon,  Gordon's  nephew,  having 
been  sent  for  from  Cairo  expressly  for  the  job,  and  given  command 
of  the  bombardment  during  the  battle,  with  orders  to  fire  at  the  tomb. 
Afterwards  he  was  intrusted  with  the  blowing-up  of  the  ruins  and  the 
violation  of  the  grave.  Kitchener  admits  that  '  the  skull  was  preserved 
and  handed  over  to  me  for  disposal,'  which  leaves  it  to  be  implied 
that  young  Gordon  performed  the  act  of  mutilation. 

"  2jth  March. —  To  Brighton  to  see  old  Herbert  Spencer  at  his 
house  in  Percival  Terrace.  I  found  him  lying  on  a  sofa  in  a  dressing- 
gown,  with  slippers  on  of  an  ornamental  feminine  kind.  He  began  by 
talking  for  ten  minutes  about  his  health,  and  explaining  that  his  fresh, 
rosy  colour  was  no  sign  of  health;  then  he  got  round  to  the  subject  of 
my  visit,  the  militarisms  and  brutalities  of  the  day,  the  idealization  of 
football  and  all  games  of  force,  the  rehabilitation  of  Napoleon  and  other 
war-making  scoundrels  who  had  long  been  condemned  as  such,  with 
the  rewriting  of  history  to  suit  the  agressive  ideas  now  in  fashion. 
He  repeated  what  he  had  said  in  his  first  letter  to  me,  that  if  he  did  not 
believe  there  would  be  a  return  to  humane  doctrines,  it  might  be  in  a 
hundred,  it  might  be  in  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  years,  he  would 
not  move  a  hand  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  the  whole  human  race. 
He  applauded  what  I  had  said  in  writing  to  him  of  its  being  probably 
necessary  that  we  should  be  first  beaten  and  invaded  here  in  England 
by  a  foreign  enemy,  and  he  thought  it  would  be  the  best  thing  that 
could  happen.  '  I  am  quite  as  pessimistic,'  he  said,  '  as  you  are  about 
the  present,  only  I  foresee  a  change  in  the  remote  future.'  '  In  the 


3i8  Spencer's  Life  at  Brighton  [1899 

remote  future,'  I  replied,  '  it  will  be  too  late,  everything  that  is  interest- 
ing and  beautiful  and  happy  in  the  world  will  have  been  destroyed. 
The  world  will  be  inhabited  then  only  by  the  ugly  and  dull,  and  miser- 
able white  races.'  This  made  him  talk  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders, 
the  Burmese,  and  other  unspoiled  people.  He  said  he  had  intended 
writing  to  William  Watson  to  suggest  a  poem  on  the  gradual  degradation 
of  a  South  Sea  Island  community  by  the  missionary  and  the  trader. 
Watson  had  not  much  backbone  in  his  poetry,  but  he  thought  he  could 
do  this.  Trade  competition  was  only  another  form  of  war  waged  by 
the  strong  against  the  weak,  less  abominable,  perhaps,  than  fire  and 
sword.  For  this  reason  the  Czar's  peace  proposals  should  be  sup- 
ported, though  they  would  not  result  in  any  real  cessation  of  civilized 
aggression.  We  talked  also  about  race  hatred  and  the  influence  women 
had  in  fostering  it,  and  I  told  him  about  India.  He  showed  me  some 
beautiful  photographs  he  had  had  sent  him  from  Burmah,  of  the 
happy  poor  people  there,  and  contrasted  them  with  the  faces  of  our 
own  poor.  Then  complaining  of  being  tired,  for  he  had  been  talking 
very  energetically,  he  sent  me  down  to  have  my  luncheon  with  the  two 
ladies  who  look  after  him,  a  housekeeper  and  a  young  lady  who  plays 
the  piano  to  him.  They  are  both  new  in  the  house,  and  he  seems  to 
have  no  relations  or  belongings  except  these  two,  and  they  are  strangers. 
After  luncheon  I  went  upstairs  again,  but  Spencer  soon  tired  of  talk, 
and,  ringing  the  bell,  he  sent  for  the  young  pianist,  whom  he  directed 
to  play  Masaniello  and  a  piece  by  Purcell,  which  she  did  for  twenty 
minutes.  She  did  this  very  nervously,  as  he  was  continually  interrupt- 
ing her,  begging  her  to  play  either  a  little  faster  or  a  little  slower. 
This  done,  we  fell  to  talk  again  about  the  domestication  of  animals. 
While  talking  he  occasionally  gets  excited,  and  jumps  up  from  his 
sofa  and  walks  hurriedly  about  the  room,  until  suddenly  recollecting 
himself  and  his  health,  he  stops.  He  explained  to  me  that  he  had  been 
an  invalid  since  he  was  a  young  man,  and  he  will  be  seventy-nine  next 
Tuesday,  and  has  a  right  to  be  careful. 

"  On  the  whole  I  am  rather  disappointed  with  Spencer.  He  is  so 
very  dry,  and  so  much  wrapped  up  in  himself,  his  ailments,  his  work 
and  his  ideas,  to  the  exclusion,  it  seems  to  me,  of  individual  sympathies. 
His  mind  is  clear  and  logical,  he  expresses  himself  well,  but  without 
eloquence  or  such  power  as  compels  attention;  not  once  was  I  able  to 
feel  myself  in  the  presence  of  a  great  man,  only  of  a  very  well-informed 
one,  a  pedagogue  and  able  reasoner.  There  was  nothing  in  him  of 
the  softening  character  which  old  age  so  often  gives,  and  which  is 
so  touching.  Still  I  am  glad  to  have  spent  this  day  with  him,  for  his 
is  one  of  the  great  names  of  our  time,  and  his  work  has  been  great. 
His  rooms  in  Perceval  Terrace  are  cheerful,  facing  the  sea,  and  he 
seldom  moves  out,  the  ladies  tell  me,  except  for  a  drive  in  the  after- 


1899]  Watts  on  Spencer  319 

noon,  nor  does  he  often  see  people,  so  I  may  take  his  asking  me  to  visit 
him  as  a  very  high  compliment.  He  has  promised  to  send  me  a  copy 
of  his  volume  on  Sociology.  At  three  I  left  him  and  walked  back  to 
the  station,  and  so  home  to  Newbuildings,  glad  not  to  be  a  philosopher. 

"  I2th  April. —  Yesterday  and  the  day  before  I  have  been  entertain- 
ing Prince  and  Princess  Sherbatoff,  showing  them  the  stud,  with  her 
brother,  Count  Strogonoff,  both  highly  intelligent  Russians,  and  breed- 
ers of  Arab  horses."  [Sherbatoff  had  travelled  in  our  footsteps  in 
Mesopotamia,  and  had  started  an  Arab  stud  on  his  estate  somewhere 
between  Moscow  and  the  Ural  mountains,  pn  the  same  principle  of 
thorough  breeding  as  our  own.] 

"  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson  sends  me  the  heads  of  a  speech  he  intends 
making  on  the  Soudan  vote.  It  reads  like  the  speech  of  Balaam,  and 
I  have  answered  him:  'If  English  Liberals  and  humanitarians  leave 
it  to  the  Irish  to  express  disapproval  of  Kitchener's  ways  with  the 
wounded  and  his  treatment  of  the  Mahdi's  head,  I  can  only  say  that 
they  had  better  vote  in  silence.  You  praise  Kitchener  for  his  deeds 
as  a  soldier.  It  is  all  the  argument  needed  to  justify  the  parliamentary 
grant.  Kitchener  did  not  make  the  policy  of  the  war,  for  that  he  is 
not  responsible,  but  he  was  responsible  for  the  brutal  way  he  conducted 
it,  a  brutality  which  makes  his  success,  no  very  great  one,  a  disgrace.' 

"  My  final  sitting  to  Watts.  The  old  man  was  more  agreeable  and 
interesting  than  ever,  and  we  parted  on  terms  of  real  affection.  The 
portrait  is  a  fine  one,  the  best,  he  said,  he  ever  painted,  but  this  is  more 
than  the  truth,  for  it  cannot  compare  with  his  great  achievements  of 
thirty  and  forty  years  ago.  Our  talk  has  never  flagged  for  a  moment 
during  the  sittings.  I  told  him  of  my  visit  to  Herbert  Spencer,  and 
asked  whether  he  had  ever  painted  him?  '  How  could  you  expect  me,' 
he  said,  '  to  paint  a  man  with  such  an  upper  lip  ? '  He  has  no  opinion 
of  the  philosopher  as  a  man,  and  declares  him  to  be  wholly  selfish. 

"  iSth  April.—  The  first  nightingale. 

"  Young  Oliver  Howard  came  to  dine  and  sleep,  and  to  consult  me 
about  a  hare-brained  expedition  he  was  bent  on  to  Jerabub  and  Kufra. 
I  strongly  advised  him  to  turn  his  thoughts  elsewhere.  It  is  quite 
enough  that  his  brother  Hubert  should  have  got  killed  in  Africa  without 
his  doing  the  same,  and  for  even  a  stupider  reason.  Neither  he  nor 
any  of  his  proposed  companions  have  had  the  smallest  experience  of  the 
North  African  desert  or  know  a  word  of  Arabic,  though  one  of  the 
party  has  been  in  Somaliland  shooting  lions.  For  his  father's  and 
mother's  sake  I  dissuaded  him. 

"22nd  April. —  Anne  returned  from  Egypt,  having  left  Judith  and 
Neville  at  Paris. 

"27//i  April. —  With  Cockerel  to  see  the  new  mosaics  at  St.  Paul's 
about  which  there  has  been  angry  correspondence  in  the  '  Times.' 


320  History  of  the  Mahdi's  Head  {1899 

They  are  not  in  the  best  style  of  decoration,  but  the  over  brilliancy  of 
the  mosaics  will  soon  blacken  in  the  London  smoke  and  tone  down 
to  the  rest. 

"  On  my  way  back  from  London  in  the  evening  we  travelled  by 

accident  with  D ,  who  as  usual  was  full  of  interesting  talk.  He 

told  us,  with  a  little  pressing  and  on  promise  not  to  give  him  away, 
the  true  history  of  the  Mahdi's  head.  The  mutilation  of  the  body  seems 
all  to  have  come  of  a  mere  bit  of  rowdy  nonsense  on  the  part  of 
certain  young  English  officers.  He  says  it  has  long  been  a  custom  with 
the  members  of  White's  Club  who  are  in  the  Army  to  bring  back 
trophies  from  any  wars  they  may  be  engaged  in  and  present  them  to 

the  club.  He,  D ,  had  jokingly  proposed  to  E W —  -  to 

bring  back  the  Mahdi's  toe-nails  from  the  coming  campaign.  Kitch- 
ener, on  this  hint,  seems  to  have  fancied  having  the  Mahdi's  head  for 
himself  to  make  an  inkstand  of,  and  gave  Gordon  the  order  to  dig 
the  body  up  and  keep  the  head  for  him.  This  accordingly  was  done, 
and  at  the  same  time  finger-nails  were  taken  by  some  of  the  young 
officers,  but  they  got  talking  about  it  at  Cairo  and  hence  the  trouble. 

He  says  he  had  the  whole  account  of  the  thing  in  detail  from  W , 

and  that  Kitchener  received  the  head  from  Gordon,  who  was  charged 
with  the  destruction  of  the  tomb,  and  he  actually  had  it  (he,  Kitchener) 
as  an  inkstand  until  Cromer  wrote  about  it,  when  he  '  put  it  behind  the 

fire.'  D was  quite  incredulous  about  its  having  been  buried  at 

Wady  Haifa,  or  anywhere  else.  It  was  just  put  '  behind  the  fire.' 

'  He  gave  an  interesting  account  of  Kitchener,  whom  he  had  known, 
he  said,  ever  since  they  were  both  together  at  Woolwich,  before  the 
French  war.  He,  D ,  was  at  a  preparatory  military  school,  read- 
ing for  the  military  college,  but  Kitchener  had  passed  in.  Kitchener 
was  '  a  rough  young  devil,'  and  he  and  another  cadet  got  into  a  row, 
partly  about  a  woman,  partly  about  money,  and  Kitchener's  father, 
who  was  poor,  refused  to  pay  up  for  his  son.  The  son,  consequently, 
ran  away  with  the  other  boy,  and  was  tried  by  court-martial  as  a 
deserter.  The  two  went  to  France  and  enlisted  in  the  French  army  and 
fought  in  the  war  in  the  Army  of  the  North,  and  Kitchener  got  some 
credit  for  his  handling  of  a  mitrailleuse  on  one  occasion,  and  eventually, 
when  the  war  was  over,  came  back  to  England  and  got  old  Linthorn 
Simmons,  then  the  head  of  Woolwich  School,  to  forgive  and  take  him 

back,  and  he  got  his  commission.  '  But,'  said  D ,  '  he  always  was 

what  I  have  said,  and  did  not  know  how  to  behave.'  His  conduct 
afterwards  to  the  Khedive  proved  this.  He  was,  however,  a  wonder- 
ful organizer,  though  a  bad  general.  He  had  very  nearly  lost  a  battle 
at  Atbara  by  his  clumsy  handling  of  the  troops,  and  again  at  Omdur- 
man,  when  he  had  wheeled  the  Egyptian  army  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
place  it  between  the  Dervishes  and  the  English  contingent,  so  that 


1899]  The  Queen's  Eightieth  Birthday  321 

these  last  were  unable  to  take  any  part  in  the  firing.  Now  he  had  been 
given  absolute  power  in  the  Soudan,  and  was  using  it  in  the  most  arbi- 
trary way.  When  Carlisle  went  up  to  Khartoum  to  visit  the  grave 
of  his  son  Hubert,  Kitchener  ordered  him  back  immediately  he  had 
performed  this  duty.  He  would  not  hear  of  Carlisle's  staying  longer 
than  the  second  day. 

"  yd  May. —  Dined  at  the  Centenary  of  the  Sussex  Club,  a  piece 
of  local  patriotism  out  of  my  usual  way;  indeed,  it  is  twenty-five  years 
since  I  dined  with  the  Club.  There  were  ninety-three  members  pres- 
ent, the  Duke  of  Norfolk  presiding,  who  did  the  duties  simply  and 
well.  I  sat  between  Henry  Campion  of  Danny  and  Brown  of  Holm- 
bush.  They  asked  me  to  take  the  Chair  at  their  next  dinner,  a  thing 
which  would  have  entailed  a  speech  on  me  at  this  one,  but  I  managed 
to  get  out  of  it.  My  father  was  one  of  the  first  members,  having  been 
elected  in  1808. 

"  i8th  May. —  Yesterday  I  was  in  London  and  met  my  friend  Harry 
Brand,1  just  back  from  Australia,  where  he  has  been  Governor  of  a 
colony.  He  found  it  dull  work  among  people  without  literature,  art, 
or  culture  of  any  kind,  except  a  taste  for  bad  music.  He  was  offered 
to  stay  on  as  Governor-General,  but  wisely  refused.  Harry  and  I  are 
contemporaries  and  we  swore,  long  ago,  the  oath  of  brotherhood,  so 
I  have  invited  him  to  take  up  his  residence  in  Mount  Street  with  me 
till  his  country  place,  The  Hoo,  becomes  vacant  in  August. 

"  iQth  May. —  Lunched  with  George  Wyndham  at  Willis's  Rooms. 
He  told  me  of  a  book  young  Winston  Churchill  is  publishing,  blurting 
out  all  kinds  of  inconvenient  truths  about  the  Soudan  campaign.  The 
desecration  of  the  Mahdi's  tomb  Winston  calls  '  a  foul  deed,'  as  indeed  it 
was. 

"  26th  May. —  I  have  written  to  Morley  on  the  Kitchener  case,  as 
he  is  taking  it  up  publicly  and  has  made  a  speech  on  it  at  Lydney.  The 
Liberal  newspapers,  however,  are  afraid  of  touching  the  matter,  and 
the  '  Daily  News '  burks  this  portion  of  his  speech. 

"  2?th  May. —  I  have  finished  my  poem,  '  Satan  Absolved,'  and  feel 
more  content  with  life  in  consequence,  having  the  sense  of  having  done 
all  I  could,  and  having  made  my  individual  protest  against  the  abomina- 
tions of  the  Victorian  Age.  The  24th  was  the  Queen's  birthday,  Her 
Majesty  being  now  eighty.  There  is  a  foolish  letter  in  the  '  Times  ' 
pointing  out  the  wonderful  fulfilment  of  a  prophecy  of  Sidney  Smith's, 
who,  sixty  years  ago,  exhorted  her  Majesty  to  make  it  the  boast  of  her 
life  to  avoid  war  and  to  have  it  on  her  conscience  to  say,  '  I  have  made 
no  orphans  or  widows.'  This  for  one  whose  reign  has  seen  whole  races 
of  beings  exterminated  under  her  rule,  and  only  the  other  day  thanked 
God  that  her  troops  had  destroyed  30,000  Dervishes ! 

1  Lord  Hampden. 


322  England's  Overlordship  of  the  World  [1899 

"  28th  May. —  George  Wyndham  came  down  last  night  to  dine  and 
sleep,  and  to-day  I  drove  him  to  Worthing,  where  we  lunched  with 
Henley.  On  our  way  over  the  Downs  we  stopped  and  walked  up  to 
Chanclebury  Ring,  which  George  had  never  done,  and  found  some 
white  dog-violets  nearly  at  the  highest  point.  George  has  told  me  a 
good  deal  about  the  internal  rivalries  in  the  Cabinet,  which  may  well 
break  out  if  anything  happens  to  Lord  Salisbury.  What  he  calls  the 
reactionary  Tories  are  headed  by  Hicks  Beach,  but  the  young  Tories, 
including  himself,  would  not  serve  under  Beach.  As  long  as  Arthur 
Balfour  is  there  they  will  follow  him,  but  if  any  accident  sent  him  too 
out  of  the  leadership  they  would  revolt  from  the  main  Tory  body  and 
form  a  third  party  of  ultra-imperialists  with  Chamberlain.  About 
foreign  politics  George  says  that  it  is  now  simply  a  triangular  battle 
between  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  German  race,  and  the  Russian, 
which  shall  have  the  hegemony  of  the  whole  world.  France  he  con- 
siders gone  as  a  great  Power,  as  much  gone  as  Spain  or  Austria,  but 
the  Emperor  William  means  to  be  supreme  overlord.  He  is  holding  his 
hand  for  the  moment  till  he  can  get  an  efficient  navy,  but  as  soon  as 
this  is  ready  there  will  be  a  coalition  against  England.  He,  George  and 
the  young  Imperialists  are  going  in  for  England's  overlordship  and 
they  won't  stand  half -measures  or  economy  in  pushing  it  on. 

"  yd  June. —  Young  Winston  Churchill  has  made  a  speech  in  which, 
while  condemning  the  desecration  of  the  Mahdi's  tomb,  he  excuses 
Kitchener  on  the  ground  that  it  was  done  in  his  absence  and  that  he 
was  keeping  silence  in  order  not  to  incriminate  his  subordinates.  This 
throws  the  odium  of  the  deed  on  young  Gordon,  a  quite  innocent  per- 
son, for  both  Anne  and  Judith,  who  have  been  seeing  Gordon  and  his 
wife  at  Cairo  all  through  the  winter,  assure  me  that  he  repudiates  the 
deed  with  absolute  disgust.  I  have  consequently  written  to  the  '  Daily 
News  '  telling  the  truth  about  it. 

"  4th  June  (Sunday). —  Lunched  at  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson's  where  I 
found  John  Morley.  We  had  a  long  two  hours'  talk  about  the  Kitch- 
ener vote  which  is  to  come  off  to-morrow.  Morley  is  very  fierce 
against  Kitchener,  and  I  gave  him  what  help  I  could,  besides  what  I 
wrote  to  him  on  the  subject.  But  he  is  hampered  by  all  sorts  of  condi- 
tions. I  urged  him  not  to  admit  the  capture  of  Omdurman  as  a  great 
feat  of  arms.  It  was  a  trumpery  affair  for  which  to  give  a  peerage, 
but  he  would  not  take  this  line,  though  it  really  invalidates  his  whole 
argument.  He  is  already  in  a  depressed  frame  of  mind,  for  Campbell 
Bannerman  is  to  second  the  vote,  and  he  thinks  the  result  of  the  debate 
will  be  to  make  a  further  cleavage  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Lib- 
eral party,  his  own  anti-military  section  being  left  with  a  small  minority. 
Even  Harcourt's  vote  he  thought  was  doubtful.  I  proposed  to  go  and 
see  Harcourt  and  try  and  persuade  him  to  vote  against  the  grant,  but 


1899]  The  Mahdi's  Head  Again  523 

Morley  said,  '  If  you  do,  for  God's  sake  don't  tell  him  you  have  seen 
me,'  which  shows  how  little  confidence  in  each  other  there  is  among  the 
chiefs,  even  of  the  Anti-Jingo  section.  He  ended,  however,  by  say- 
ing I  might  as  well  go  to  Harcourt  without  mentioning  him.  I  found 
Sir  William  at  the  Avondale  Hotel  in  capital  spirits,  but  when,  after 
some  talk  about  the  New  Forest,  I  mentioned  the  Mahdi's  head,  I  saw 
his  countenance  fall,  and  he  changed  the  subject  to  the  Transvaal,  where 
he  thinks  trouble  is  coming,  and  then  while  we  were  talking  about  it 
he  was  suddenly  called  out,  and  I  did  not  see  him  again.  I  asked  Lady 
Harcourt  when  we  were  alone  to  try  and  get  him  to  support 
Morley,  but  she  said,  '  I  have  given  up  trying  to  get  him  to  do  any- 
thing but  what  he  chooses,'  which  I  take  to  mean  he  will  do  nothing. 

"  5//i  June. —  Again  to  London  where  I  found  a  note  from  Lady  Har- 
court, telling  me  that  what  had  interrupted  my  talk  with  Sir  William 
yesterday  was  the  news  brought  him  of  Loulou  having  been  taken  ser- 
iously ill,  so  that  his  wedding,  which  was  fixed  for  to-morrow,  has  had 
to  be  put  off. 

"  My  letter  about  Kitchener  is  in  the  '  Daily  News  '  neutralized  ac- 
cording to  an  editorial  dodge  by  printing  next  to  it  what  is  headed  as 
'  The  true  story '  in  contradiction  to  mine.  At  first  I  was  alarmed  lest 
young  Gordon  might  have  confessed,  in  spite  of  his  denial,  that  he  was 
the  real  culprit,  so  I  went  down  to  Chelsea  and  lunched  with  my  kins- 
man, Gerald  Blunt,  at  the  Rectory  (whose  son's  wife  was  a  sister  of 
Gordon's),  and  he  reassured  me  on  this  point.  He  says  that  Gordon's 
family  are  furious  at  the  slur  cast  on  him.  Then  at  four  to  the  House 
of  Commons.  George  had  got  me  a  good  seat  in  the  special  gallery, 
and  I  found  myself  among  friends,  Rennel  Rodd,  George  Peel,  Canon 
Wilberforce,  and  others.  Kitchener,  who  returned  to  England  last 
night,  was  sitting  with  Roberts  in  the  Peers'  gallery.  After  the  usual 
irrelevancies,  Arthur  Balfour  opened  the  debate  in  a  brief  speech 
recounting  Kitchener's  services,  for  the  Opposition  was  quite  unequal 
to  the  occasion.  Kitchener's  name  had  not  been  very  warmly  received, 
and  it  would  have  been  easy  to  appeal  to  the  better  feeling  of  the 
House,  though  the  result  of  the  vote  could  not  have  been  altered,  but 
Campbell  Bannerman's  rising  to  second  the  vote,  though  he  expressed 
himself  pretty  strongly  on  the  '  vulgarity '  of  the  desecration  of  the 
tomb,  put  things  at  once  into  a  false  position,  and  Morley  who  followed 
to  oppose  it,  with  the  strongest  of  possible  cases,  proved  feeble  beyond 
all  recorded  feebleness.  His  arguments  were  weak  to  fatuity,  and  he 
gave  himself  away  over  and  over  again  till  the  House  laughed  at  him. 
So  much  was  this  the  case  that  Balfour  already  found  himself  in 
sympathy  with  the  House  before  he  rose  to  reply.  He  did  this  in  a 
speech  of  great  skill  and  eloquence,  which,  as  mere  oratory,  it  was  a 
relief  to  listen  to,  and  he  succeeded  even  to  taking  a  high  moral  line 


324  Kitchener  Explains  [1899 

with  the  wretched  Morley,  and  in  proving  to  him  conclusively  that 
Kitchener  was  absolutely  justified,  indeed  bound  by  every  principle  of 
right  feeling  to  blow  up  the  tomb,  dig  up  the  body,  chuck  it  into  the 
Nile,  and  what  he  called  '  disperse  the  remains.'  Absurd  as  his  argu- 
ment was  it  was  conclusive  with  the  House,  and  Morley  had  not  even 
the  wit  to  ask  what  became  of  the  poor  head,  or  who  was  entrusted 
with  the  various  operations.  I  doubt  if  Morley  will  ever  make  a  speech 
again  in  the  House,  I  should  not  if  I  were  he. 

"  Personally  I  am  not  altogether  dissatisfied  with  the  result.  We 
have  gained  at  least  this,  that  we  have  forced  Balfour  and  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  House  of  Commons  to  declare  themselves  in  favour  of 
the  extreme  abominations  of  war,  and  have  in  so  far  exposed  the 
hypocrisy  of  modern  England.  It  is  better  so  than  that  the  country 
should  have  it  in  its  power  to  boast  that  it  did  not  approve,  although 
it  did  the  deed.  Kitchener  got  his  £30,000,  his  money  perish  with  him ! 
I  was  glad  to  notice  that,  except  old  Roberts,  who  came  with  him  to 
the  House,  none  of  his  brother  Peers  in  the  gallery  offered  him  a 
congratulation,  or  spoke  a  word  to  him. 

"  *jth  June. —  In  all  the  newspaper  articles  on  the  Kitchener  Debate, 
not  one  has  the  wit  to  see  the  flaw  in  Balfour's  argument.  It  rests 
entirely  on  Kitchener's  assertion  that  he  had  the  Mahdi's  tomb  pro- 
faned, and  the  body  dispersed  deliberately  with  a  political  intention, 
that  of  publicly  showing  the  Mohammedan  world  of  Africa  that  the 
Mahdi  was  an  impostor.  The  untruth,  however,  of  this  is  easily  dis- 
coverable even  in  the  meagre  Blue  Book  published.  If  it  had  been 
true  it  is  certain  Kitchener  would  have  reported  the  fact  with  the  rea- 
sons to  Cromer  at  the  time,  and  that  Cromer  would  have  reported  them 
at  the  time  to  the  Foreign  Office.  But  though  the  thing  happened  in 
September,  and  though  Kitchener  in  the  meanwhile  had  been  back  in 
London,  and  in  personal  communication  with  everybody,  including 
her  gracious  Majesty  the  Queen,  the  Government  professed  to  be  ig- 
norant of  the  facts  until  the  month  of  February,  the  earliest  document 
in  the  Blue  Book  being  one  of  February  17,  when  Cromer  sent  home 
a  communication  of  February  i  from  Kitchener.  Kitchener  then  for 
the  first  time  gives  his  explanation  thus :  '  I  would  add,'  he  says,  '  that 
my  action  regarding  the  tomb  of  Mohammed  Achmet,  the  so-called 
Mahdi,  was  taken  after  due  deliberation,  and  prompted  solely  by  po- 
litical considerations.'  How  anybody  at  all  conversant  with  the  way 
in  which  Blue  Books  are  edited  can  be  simple  enough  to  believe  in 
face  of  this  comparison  of  dates,  that  the  '  political  considerations  '  were 
not  an  afterthought  passes  my  understanding,  yet  is  clear  that  Morley 
and  even  the  Irish  overlooked  the  absurdity.  The  whole  discussion  in 
Parliament  was  unreal,  nobody  wanted  to  believe,  except  perhaps  Mor- 
ley. The  Irish  look  on  Kitchener  with  a  sneaking  regard,  as  in  some 


1899]  Milner's  Mission  to  Make  War  325 

measure  an  Irishman,  while  Dillon  has  Catholic  sympathies  which  pre- 
vent his  quite  disapproving  the  crusade.  In  this  way  Balfour's  absurd 
argument  held  its  ground,  and  I  suppose  will  hold  it  in  history. 

"  1 5//i  June. —  The  plot  for  annexing  the  Transvaal  has  taken  a  new 
development.  Chamberlain,  to  force  the  hand  of  the  Government,  has 
published  a  despatch  of  Milner's  written  on  the  4th  of  May  of  the 
most  aggressive  kind,  and  the  newspapers  are  full  of  flame  and  fury, 
the  '  Daily  News  '  leading  the  chorus.  They  talk  about  Milner's  '  cool 
and  impartial  judgment'  just  as  if  Milner  had  not  been  specially 
selected  by  Chamberlain  to  put  the  job  through.  Milner  was  sent  to 
Egypt  ten  years  ago  to  convert  English  Liberal  opinion  to  the  plan  of 
remaining  on  there  instead  of  withdrawing  the  garrison,  and  having 
succeeded  in  that  mission  he  has  been  sent  to  the  Cape  to  convert 
English  Liberal  opinion  to  the  idea  of  reannexing  the  Transvaal. 
Milner,  though  an  excellent  fellow  personally,  is  quite  an  extremist 
as  an  imperial  agent,  and  his  journalistic  experience  on  the  '  Pall  Mall 
Gazette '  has  given  him  the  length  of  John  Bull's  foot  very  accurately, 
so  that  he  is  invaluable  to  the  Empire  builders.  Now  there  will  cer- 
tainly be  war  in  South  Africa.  They  have  tried  every  kind  of  fraud 
to  get  their  way,  but  old  Kruger  has  been  too  astute  for  them,  so  they 
will  try  force.  They  seem  to  have  squared  the  German  Emperor, 
France  is  in  chaos,  they  think  their  opportunity  come.  Chamberlain 
will  not  rest  until  he  has  Kruger's  head  on  a  charger.  The  Boers, 
however,  will  fight,  and  there  is  some  chance  of  a  general  war  between 
the  Dutch  and  the  English  in  South  Africa,  which  may  alleviate  the 
condition  of  the  only  people  there  whose  interests  I  really  care  for  in 
the  quarrel,  namely  the  blacks.  It  will  also  be  a  beautiful  exposure 
of  our  English  sham  philanthropy,  if  at  the  very  moment  the  Peace 
Congress  is  sitting  at  The  Hague,  we  flout  its  mediation  and  launch 
into  an  aggressive  war.  Anything  is  better  than  the  general  hand-shak- 
ing of  the  great  white  thieves  and  their  amicable  division  of  the  spoils. 

"  I  am  now  staying  at  Oxford  with  York  Powell  at  Christ-Church. 
Powell  is  an  excellent  good  fellow,  and  seems  to  be  much  liked  at  Ox- 
ford in  spite  of  his  somewhat  heterodox  views  on  politics,  for  he  has 
a  certain  Socialistic  tendency  enough  to  have  widened  his  mind.  We 
had  a  deal  of  talk  to-day,  principally  on  poetry  and  literature,  of  which 
he  has  a  large  knowledge.  I  told  him,  among  other  things,  of  my 
having  consulted  Jowett  fifteen  years  ago  half  seriously  about  the  pos- 
sibility of  my  entering  the  University  as  an  Undergraduate,  and  how 
he  had  answered  me.  '  You  could  never  pass  the  examination  for 
Balliol,  but  might  try  Christ-Church.'  '  Insolent  dog!  '  said  Powell,  re- 
senting the  slur  on  his  College.  It  is  lovely  weather,  the  Christ-Church 
Meadow  looking  its  best,  and  while  we  sat  on  a  bench  in  the  Elm 
Avenue  talking,  a  little  redstart  was  watching  us.  Then  we  went  into 


326  Krugen  at  Blocmfontein  [1899 

the  Cathedral  to  see  the  Burne-Jones  Morris  windows.  Prayers  were 
going  on  for  the  Queen,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  Houses  of  Par- 
liament, and  they  were  intoning,  '  Give  peace  in  our  time,  O  Lord.' 
Then  we  dined  in  the  hall,  and  talked  with  two  Dons,  Myers  and  an- 
other, about  Eastern  travel  and  horses,  till  I  got  away  to  bed. 

"  2ist  June. —  Lane  will  publish  '  Satan  Absolved/ 

"  2%th  June. —  Herbert  Spencer  consents  to  have  '  Satan  Absolved  ' 
dedicated  to  him,  but  is  in  a  terrible  fright  lest  it  should  be  found  out 
that  he  gave  the  idea  of  the  poem,  '  on  account,'  he  says,  '  of  the  odium 
theologicum  and  the  injury  it  might  do  to  the  spread  of  his  philosophy,' 
so  I  have  written  a  preface  without  exactly  saying  this,  though  it  is  not 
very  courageous  of  him  to  leave  me  alone  in  the  coming  battle. 

"  2gth  June. —  Breakfasted  with  George  and  Sibell,  who  showed  me 
two  very  interesting  letters  from  her  son  Bendor,  describing  the  inter- 
view between  Kruger  and  his  chief,  Milner  (whose  private  secretary 
he  is)  at  Bloemfontein.  The  letters  were  written  actually  during  the 
conference,  and  contained  sketches  of  old  Kruger,  whom  he  described 
as  very  old  and  infirm,  and  also  very  sly.  He  talked  of  Kruger  as 
'  bluffing.'  He  writes  with  a  boy's  enthusiasm  for  his  chief,  and  seems 
to  be  enjoying  himself  greatly.  I  showed  George  my  preface  to  '  Satan 
Absolved,'  which  he  thinks  cannot  fail  to  attract  attention. 

"  On  my  way  home  by  the  late  train  I  travelled  as  far  as  Dorking 
with  Harry  Cust.  I  gave  him  my  view  of  the  way  the  Transvaal 
quarrel  had  been  engineered  by  Chamberlain  and  Milner.  He  pro- 
fessed to  regard  this  as  the  extreme  of  political  scepticism.  '  A  poet,' 
he  said, '  should  not  be  so  unbelieving  in  honesty.'  He  was  on  his  way 
down  to  Admiral  Maxse's,  where  he  was  to  meet  Meredith  and  others. 

"  8th  July. —  Our  annual  Arab  Sale,  an  immense  concourse  of  peo- 
ple, 380  sitting  down  for  luncheon  in  the  tent.  Colonel  Sdanovitch  our 
principal  buyer  for  the  Russian  Government. 

"8th  Aug. —  I  have  been  staying  for  the  last  few  weeks  at  Fernycroft, 
but  to-day  I  went  to  London,  where  I  found  Hampden  at  my  rooms  in 
Mount  Street.  He  has  been  living  there  all  the  last  month.  We  went 
in  the  evening  to  see  the  Savage  South  African  Show.  It  is  a  return 
to  the  shows  of  Imperial  Rome,  minus  the  bloodshed,  and  is  worth 
seeing  as  a  spectacle,  though  it  is  monstrous  to  look  on  at  these  captives 
brought  to  London  to  make  a  Roman  holiday.  The  white  swaggerers 
who  are  given  the  beau  role  to  play  in  the  exhibition  are  of  course  dis- 
gusting, but  the  black  men  managed  to  preserve  their  dignity  and  make 
the  others  look  foolish.  The  superiority  of  the  black  man  over  the 
white  was  throughout  conspicuous,  and  it  did  not  need  the  patter  of  the 
whites  on  the  stage  to  explain  that  it  was  only  their  maxim  guns  that 
gave  the  latter  their  victory." 

From  9th  August  to  i6th  August  I  was  at  Fernycroft,  my  new  ac- 


1899]  Chamberlain  Forcing  on  War  327 

quisition  in  the  New  Forest,  and  after  that  on  my  annual  summer  driv- 
ing tour  once  more  visiting  St.  Pagans,  where,  amongst  others,  I  found 
Lord  Rowton  and  Sanderson,  of  the  Foreign  Office. 

"  2ist  Aug. —  Both  are  good  company,  and  we  have  had  much 
friendly  discussion  of  politics.  Rowton  tells  me  that  never  with  his 
consent  will  Dizzy's  Memoirs  be  published.  He  is  light  in  hand  and 
eminently  reasonable,  full  of  amusing  anecdotes,  especially  of  his  old 
master,  and  of  his  lodging-house  plans,  an  odd  hobby,  for  it  is  not  alto- 
gether a  charity,  paying,  he  tells  me,  4  per  cent,  on  the  capital,  but  it 
doubtless  does  much  good.  Sanderson  has  talked  freely  on  the  Trans- 
vaal quarrel,  and  expresses  very  moderate  opinions.  He  believes  in 
a  pacific  arrangement.  This  in  contradistinction  to  Windsor  our  host 
who,  though  the  quietest  and  most  moderate  of  men  on  other  topics, 
takes  fire  about  the  Transvaal  almost  as  a  personal  matter. 

"  2C)th  Aug. —  Back  at  Fernycroft.  Chamberlain  has  made  another 
violent  speech,  and  it  is  clear  now,  as,  indeed,  it  has  been  all  through, 
that  he  is  forcing  on  a  war  with  the  Boers.  The  Liberal  press  is 
childish,  and  there  is  practically  no  opposition.  The  Liberal  party  has 
swallowed  so  many  violences  and  so  many  diplomatic  frauds  in  the 
last  twenty  years  that  it  may  as  well  make  up  its  mind  to  swallow  this 
too.  I,  as  an  enemy  of  Empire,  shall  say  not  a  word. 

"  ist  Sept. —  Partridge  shooting  with  Mark  Napier  and  Terence 
Bourke.  I  shot  well,  the  first  time  since  my  illness,  killing  twelve 
birds  in  as  many  shots,  but  I  am  no  longer  keen  for  sport  of  any  kind, 
and  go  out  principally  as  an  old  custom  and  to  justify  the  expense  of 
game  preserving.  My  logic  about  shooting  here  in  England  is,  that 
it  is  the  only  way  of  preventing  the  destruction  of  wild  animals.  If 
there  was  no  shooting,  no  one  would  be  at  the  expense  of  paying 
gamekeepers,  nor  would  it  be  possible  to  prevent  the  rag-tag  and  bob- 
tail of  the  towns  from  snaring  and  netting.  The  abolition  of  the 
game  laws  would  mean  the  extinction  not  only  of  all  game,  but  of  the 
small  wild  birds  and  beasts,  too,  which  enjoy  the  peace  of  the  protected 
covers,  while,  if  I  did  not  go  out  shooting  myself,  my  gamekeepers 
would  take  no  trouble  to  prevent  poaching,  so  I  kill  my  few  brace  of 
partridges  and  pheasants,  that  the  rest  may  live  in  peace.  In  Egypt, 
where  there  are  no  game  laws  and  no  birdsnesting,  I  never  fire  a  gun. 

"  yd  Sept.  (Sunday). —  I  have  written  a  long  letter  to  Frederic  Har- 
rison about  the  Transvaal,  apropos  of  his  open  letter  to  Lord  Salisbury, 
which  has  just  been  published.  It  is  principally  to  explain  to  him  that 
he  is  mistaken  if  he  really  relies  on  Lord  Salisbury  to  control  Cham- 
berlain, or  to  do  anything  to  prevent  a  war  which  he  and  the  Queen 
desire.  Also  to  let  him  know  what  Milner's  position  is  in  the  affair. 

"  nth  Sept. —  The  world  has  gone  mad  over  the  verdict  of  guilty 
given  in  the  Dreyfus  case.  Of  course  it  is  abominable,  but  what  did 


328  Morley  Gives  Away  the  Case  for  Peace 

anyone  expect?  It  was  clear  from  the  time  that  Gallifet  took  office 
that  there  would  be  a  compromise  of  the  case,  and  that  the  compromise 
would  only  be  that  Dreyfus  should  be  found  guilty  and  then  pardoned, 
and  that  be  the  end  of  it.  As  to  our  virtuous  selves,  we  are  of  course 
in  a  state  of  splendid  denunciation  of  our  neighbour's  sin,  this  at  the 
very  moment  that  we  are  pushing  forward  a  new  raid  on  the  Boers, 
certainly  no  smaller  public  iniquity,  huge  though  the  other  may  be. 
I  drove  to-day  to  Malwood,  but  Sir  William  was  away.  Lady  Har- 
cotirt  would  not  hear  of  war  with  the  Transvaal. 

"  i6th  Sept. —  I  have  written  again  to  Harrison  about  the  Transvaal. 
He  answered  me  a  week  ago,  urging  me  to  write  to  the  '  Times  '  in  the 
same  sense  as  I  had  to  him,  and  as  to  Salisbury  saying,  '  It  is  well  to 
attribute  virtue  to  a  powerful  man,  even  if  he  has  it  not.  It  must 
make  him  doubt  of  it.'  This  I  cannot  do,  as  I  am  certain  the  '  Times  ' 
would  not  publish  such  a  letter.  I  have  explained  to  him  how  Buckle 
is  one  of  the  gang  acting  with  Rhodes,  and  how  the  Jameson  Raid  was 
concocted,  so  to  say,  in  the  '  Times '  office,  and  how  there  is  no  true 
peace  party  in  England.  The  only  difference  between  Liberals  and 
Conservatives  in  these  cases  is,  that  while  both  rob  with  the  cry  of 
'  your  money  or  your  life,'  the  Liberals  would  like  the  money  given 
up  peaceably,  the  others  after  a  fight.  I  have  told  him  that  I  do  not 
believe  in  the  possibility  of  any  change  of  opinion  until  we  have  got  a 
good  beating  ourselves,  and  that  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  the  Boers 
may  make  a  formidable  stand.  In  any  case  it  would  be  better  for  the 
world  that  they  should  be  destroyed  fighting  for  their  independence, 
than  that  they  should  be  bullied  or  cheated  out  of  it. 

"  i8th  Sept. —  Fernycroft.  A  telegram  came  from  Madeline  Wynd- 
ham  to  say  she  was  coming  to  spend  the  day  here.  I  accordingly 
met  her  at  Southampton.  On  the  way  there  I  read  in  the  papers  the 
Boers'  refusal  of  Chamberlain's  ultimatum.  A  very  dignified  document 
it  is,  and  one  very  difficult  for  our  people  to  answer.  Morley  had  al- 
ready a  day  or  two  ago  at  a  meeting  in  Manchester  given  away  the 
whole  Liberal  case  against  the  war,  publicly  approving  the  Franchise 
demand,  made  by  our  Government  on  the  Transvaal,  a  mere  red  her- 
ring which  the  Radicals  have  run  to  in  full  cry.  The  consequence  is 
that  the  whole  English  press  to-day  is  with  the  Government  and  war 
is  certain."  [N.B.  The  pretext  of  demanding  the  franchise  for  the 
Outlanders  in  the  Transvaal  was  a  trap  laid  by  Milner  especially  for 
Morley  and  the  Radicals  who  stepped  into  it  precisely  as  was  intended. 
Once  having  approved  the  demand  it  was  impossible  for  these  with  any 
logic  to  disapprove  the  military  steps  taken  to  enforce  the  demand  on 
Kruger,  and  war  became  a  necessity.] 

"  2ist  Sept. —  The  news  is  all  very  ominous,  indeed  it  will  be  a  miracle 
if  war  does  not  break  out  of  itself  on  the  frontier  without  further 


1899]  With  Frederic  Harrison  at  Sutton  Place  329 

waiting,  and  so  give  our  Government  the  pretext  it  wants.  Under  the 
circumstances  I  have  resolved  to  publish  my  letter  of  the  2nd  to  Har- 
rison. 

"  Dreyfus  has  been  pardoned ;  and  so  the;  case  ends  according 
to  programme.  Our  papers  are  in  a  righteous  fury  and  Dreyfus 
swears  he  will  continue  the  struggle.  But  it  will  not  end  here.  It  has 
cost  France  dear  —  her  position  on  the  Nile,  her  position  as  a  great 
European  Power,  and  her  good  name  in  the  world.  Gallifet  deserves 
well  of  his  country  for  the  courage  he  has  shown  and  the  wisdom  in 
ending  it. 

"  26th  Sept. —  Frederic  Harrison  writes  that  he  wishes  to  see  me 
about  the  Transvaal.  He  warns  me  that  I  should  have  to  modify  my 
letter  to  him  if  I  sent  it  to  the  '  Times.'  It  was  '  violently  actionable,' 
he  said,  and  as  I  should  have  no  defence,  it  would  cost  me  £10,000 
to  have  it  printed  as  it  stood.  But  he  hoped  I  will  publish  something. 
He  also  tells  me  as  a  secret  that,  at  his  suggestion,  the  Queen  of  Hol- 
land has,  he  believes,  written  to  our  gracious  Majesty,  begging  her  to 
intervene  to  stop  the  war,  which  otherwise  is  inevitable.  This  would 
seem  the  best  chance,  though  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  Queen 
Victoria  has  been  a  prime  mover  in  the  Government  policy.  These 
military  blood  sheddings  are  not  displeasing  to  Her  Majesty,  and  she 
has  just  allowed  Kitchener  to  make  her  a  present  of  a  white  ass  from 
Omdurman. 

"  On  receipt  of  this  letter  I  went  to  London  and  at  Mount  Street 
found  Hampden.  He  tells  me  Lord  Salisbury  has  arranged  with 
Portugal  to  take  immediate  possession  of  Delagoa  Bay.1  This  he  has 
learned  confidentially  from  the  Colonial  Office.  I  then  went  down  to 
Sutton  Place,  in  which  delightful  old  house  I  now  am  staying  with 
Frederic  Harrison  and  his  brother. 

"  27//t  Sept. —  Sutton  Place.  I  have  had  a  long  talk  with  Harrison 
about  the  Transvaal,  which  we  both  think  must  fight  unless  indeed 
there  is  royal  interference  in  Holland.  We  have  decided  not  to  publish 
my  letter  as  being  too  libellous,  also  the  time  is  a  little  gone  by  for  it  to 
do  much  good.  I  read  him  my  '  Satan  Absolved.'  He  thinks  it  should 
be  the  sensation  of  the  year.  He  will  write  a  review  of  it  in  the  '  Nine- 
teenth Century,'  refuting  its  attack  on  humanity  and  giving  me  an  op- 
portunity of  defending  my  ideas  in  prose.  This  will  make  it  almost 
certainly  a  success. 

"  The  Harrisons,  or  rather,  Sidney  Harrison  and  his  mother,  have 
been  tenants  of  Sutton  for  twenty-five  years.  The  house  is  much 
dilapidated  as  to  doors  and  windows,  and  is  a  fearfully  cold  house  to 
inhabit  even  in  September,  having,  unlike  most  old  houses,  ridiculously 
small  fireplaces,  which  seem  to  have  been  always  there.  I  slept  in  the 
west  wing,  the  only  spare  bedroom,  big  as  the  house  is.  I  have  known 

1  Compare  Dr.  Dillon's  book,  "  The  Eclipse  of  Russia." 


330  Kitchener  "Such  a  Stern  Man"  [1899 

Sutton  Place  as  long  ago  as  the  year  1855,  when  it  was  occupied  by 
my  cousins,  the  Lefevres.  In  those  days  there  was  a  Catholic  chapel 
in  the  east  wing  to  which  we  used  to  be  sent  on  Sundays  from  West 
Horsley.  The  east  wing  was  then  uninhabited,  a  melancholy  romantic 
vacancy  with  a  great  staircase,  hung  with  family  portraits  mouldering 
on  the  walls.  The  chapel  was  in  an  upper  room  used  for  mass  on 
Sundays,  according  to  an  old  endowment.  Now  the  wing  has  been 
restored  and  is  occupied  and  the  chapel  placed  elsewhere. 

"  2gth  Sept. — Back  to  London.  Lady  Lytton  tells  me  that  Kitchener 
is  a  great  favourite  at  Court.  She  was  with  the  Queen  and  Kitchener 
when  they  went  to  Natley  Hospital,  and  was  impressed  with  Kitchener's 
manner  to  the  wounded  soldiers.  '  What  these  Royal  personages  ad- 
mire,' she  said,  '  is  that  he  is  such  a  stern  man.' 

"  3O//i  Sept. —  My  cousin,  Gerald  Henry  Blunt  and  his  wife  (she  is 
General  Gordon's  niece  and  sister  to  Colonel  Bill  Gordon)  is  here  at 
Newbuildings  to  dine  and  sleep,  and  I  have  heard  from  her  the  whole 
story  of  the  digging  up  of  the  Mahdi  at  first  hand,  or  rather,  as  her 
brother  told  it  her.  '  Bill,'  she  said,  '  was  entrusted  with  the  bombard- 
ment of  the  tomb  from  the  gunboat  on  the  river  during  the  battle  of 
Omdurman,  and  after  it  he  was  ordered  to  blow  up  the  ruined  remains 
of  the  dome,  as  being  already  shattered  and  unsafe.  This  he  did,  but 
it  was  no  part  of  his  orders  to  interfere  with  the  body  of  the  Mahdi. 
It  was  left  untouched  under  the  ruins  until  Kitchener's  return  from 
Fashoda,  when  Kitchener  had  it  dug  up  and  thrown  into  the  river. 
Bill  was  not  present  at  this,  nor  was  the  job  assigned  to  him,  but  Kitch- 
ener and  most  of  his  staff  were  present,  and  Kitchener  ordered  the 
head  to  be  kept,  intending  to  send  it  to  the  College  of  Surgeons,  as  the 
head  was  a  very  large  and  remarkable  one.  It  was  sent  on  board  the 
steamer  in  a  kerosene  tin  and  taken  down  to  Cairo,  but  was  never  in 
Bill's  charge,  and  he  disapproved  of  the  whole  business.  Eventually 
when  the  scandal  was  made  about  it,  the  head  was  entrusted  to  two 
English  officers  to  take  up  the  river  again  to  Wady  Haifa.'  These  re- 
ported that  they  '  buried  it  at  night,  somewhere  in  the  desert,'  they 

don't  know  where,  so  very  possibly  D 's  account  of  its  having  been 

'  put  behind  the  fire '  is  correct.  Mrs.  Gerald  Blunt  thanked  me  pro- 
fusely for  the  letter  I  had  written  to  the  '  Daily  News  *  in  her  brother's 
defence,  and  said  that  Bill  considered  that  Kitchener  had  treated  him 
unfairly  in  the  affair.  They  had  all  made  a  scapegoat  of  him  because 
he  did  not  stand  in  with  them  in  certain  not  very  straightforward 
things.  She  is  a  nice,  cheerful  little  woman,  enthusiastic  about  her 
'  Uncle  Charlie,'  and  not  at  all  conventional  about  the  military  nonsense 
of  the  day. 

"  $oth  Sept. —  To  the  Hoo,  where  I  found  a  family  party.     Hampden 
and  his  wife,  and  sons  and  daughters.     Nothing  is  talked  of  but  the 


1899]  The  Boer  War  Imminent  331 

Boer  war.  I  notice  that  Harry,  who  was  quite  moderate  about  it  when 
he  first  came  home  from  Australia,  has  now  imbibed  all  the  violent 
Liberal-Unionist  views  regarding  it.  His  eldest  son  is  ordered  to  the 
war,  and  the  younger  ones  talked  loudly  about  '  exterminating  the 
Boers.'  We  expect  hourly  now  to  hear  of  guns  gone  off  on  the 
frontier. 

"  2nd  Oct. —  Back  to  Newbuildings.  The  '  Chronicle  '  is  running 
a  new  red  herring  to-day,  and  has  proposed  sending  the  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire out  to  South  Africa,  of  all  men  in  the  world,  to  arrange  a  peace. 
They  are  ready,  however,  to  follow  every  false  scent  thrown  in  their 
way.  The  Government's  present  plan  is  to  try  and  make  people  think 
they  don't  want  war,  and  don't  want  to  wipe  out  Majuba,  and  don't 
want  to  annex  the  Transvaal.  We  shall  see  when  it  is  over.  If,  after 
a  successful  campaign,  the  Transvaal  is  not  annexed,  and  Milner  is  not 
made  a  peer,  they  may  claim  not  to  have  intended  it;  but  both  these 
things  will  happen. 

"  Jth  Oct. —  We  have  been  expecting  the  Boers  to  advance  on  Natal 
all  the  week,  but  something  has  delayed  them.  Perhaps  the  abortive 
attempt  by  the  Queen  of  Holland  to  intervene  with  our  Queen.  The 
Boers  seem  to  be  losing  their  chance  by  this  delay,  but  I  fancy  old 
Kruger  knows  what  he  is  about.  He  has,  I  think,  to  consult  his  friends 
in  Europe,  at  Berlin  and  elsewhere,  before  each  important  move.  He 
has  managed  to  get  the  whole  sympathy  of  the  Continent  with  him, 
indeed,  of  the  whole  world  except  ourselves  and  the  Americans.  These 
last  are  backing  us,  as  we  backed  them  in  their  iniquity  against  the 
Filipinos.  The  Transvaal  Committee,  too,  in  Manchester,  has  been 
telegraphing  absurd  messages  to  Kruger,  telling  him  that  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire  may  be  trusted.  If  this  has  at  all  influenced  the  old  man, 
the  Transvaal  Committee  deserves  hanging,  for  the  delay  of  the  week 
may  cost  him  dear. 

"  gth  Oct. —  The  men  at  the  Clubs  now  mock  at  Kruger,  saying  he 
won't  fight,  never  meant  to  fight,  and  the  rest.  Reginald  Carew,  whom 
I  met  at  the  Travellers,  talked  in  this  sense.  He  leaves  for  South 
Africa  with  Buller's  staff  on  Saturday,  but  I  told  him  not  to  be  dis- 
couraged, that  the  Boers  would  certainly  not  cave  in.  He  thinks  they 
have  lost  what  chance  they  had  by  waiting.  Perhaps  so.  Still  they 
will  fight."  [N.B.  This  was  General  Pole  Carew,  who  went  on  Bull- 
er's Staff.  I  remember  him  lamenting  his  bad  luck  in  the  belief  he  had 
that  what  little  fighting  there  might  be  would  have  been  over  long  be- 
fore Buller's  arrival.  He  distinguished  himself  during  the  war  prin- 
cipally, I  think,  as  being  the  first  to  burn  down  the  Boer  farms.  He 
is  a  connection  of  mine  through  the  Glanvilles.  I  have  known  him  in 
India  when  he  was  Lytton's  A.D.C.  It  had  been  arranged  at  that  time 
that  he  was  to  go  with  me  as  representing  Lytton  on  the  journey  we 


332  Dr.  Budge  on  the  Horse  in  Egypt  [1899 

proposed  taking  that  year  in  Arabia,  but  which  Cavagnari's  death  at 
Kabul  and  Lytton's  recall  from  India  prevented.  (See  'India  under 
Ripon.')  ] 

"  loth  Oct. —  The  streets  are  placarded  with  the  Boer  ultimatum,  so 
I  hope  the  end  has  come. 

"  To  the  British  Museum  with  Cockerell,  and  saw  Dr.  Budge,  of  the 
Egyptian  Department.  He  gave  us  a  deal  of  information  about  the 
Hyksos  and  Assyrians  in  connection  with  Horse  History.  But  all  these 
authorities  differ  so  much  from  each  other  in  what  they  tell  you,  that 
one  cannot  have  much  confidence  in  their  knowledge.  As  Huxley  said, 
it  is  still  all  '  guess  work.' 

"  I2th  Oct. —  Dined  with  Sibell  and  George,  and  Lady  Windsor  in 
Park  Lane,  and  went  with  them  to  see  '  King  John*  at  Her  Majesty's 
theatre,  an  egregious  performance.  I  never  cared  about  '  King  John,' 
and,  as  acted  by  Tree,  it  was  a  violent  piece  of  ranting.  George,  with 
whom  I  walked  home  after  it,  told  me  that  Tree  had  chosen  the  play 
as  being  full  of  Jingo  tags  and  no  Popery  talk.  But  the  audience  was 
too  dull  to  seize  the  points. 

"  We  talked  much  about  the  war,  which  is  declared  to-day.  George's 
brother  Guy  is  on  White's  Staff  at  Ladysmith,  and  he  expects  them  to 
advance.  White's  orders  from  England  have  been  generally  to  stand 
on  the  defensive,  but  George  is  sure  he  will  not  remain  quiet,  and  '  of 
course  we  must  leave  all  liberty  to  the  men  on  the  spot.'  Baden  Powell 
is  at  Mafeking,  and  there  will  be  fighting  there.  He  told  me  a  good 

story  of  a  certain  J ,  who  is  notorious  for  keeping  clear  of  danger. 

He  has  just  telegraphed  to  his  wife  from  Kimberley,  seven  hundred 
miles  away  from  Mafeking,  '  War  declared.  Mafeking  will  be  at- 
tacked by  Boers  to-morrow  —  probably  destroyed.  No  cause  for  anx- 
iety.' About  the  general  prospects  of  the  war,  George  still  believes  in 
the  theory  that  Kruger  is  '  bluffing,'  and  that  after  a  bit  of  a  fight  he 
will  knock  under  to  Buller  and  make  terms,  otherwise  he  thinks  it  will 
be  a  very  long  and  tough  job.  He  says  that  the  Cabinet  would  really 
have  come  to  an  arrangement  with  Kruger  but  for  the  bitterness  of  the 
feeling  against  Chamberlain.  There  was  a  moment  when  they  would 
have  accepted  terms  which,  while  giving  Chamberlain  an  appearance 
of  a  diplomatic  success,  would  have  left  the  real  advantage  to  Kruger. 
Kruger,  he  thinks,  ought  to  have  accepted  the  proposal  of  inquiry  and 
discussion,  have  agreed  to  go  himself  to  Cape  Town,  and  then  have 
delayed  and  put  off  till  everybody  was  tired  of  it.  He  had  himself 
heard  Chamberlain  say  when  they  expected  such  acceptance  by  Kruger, 
'  It  seems  my  failure  has  been  changed  into  a  pcean.'  Now,  however, 
there  is  no  way  but  to  fight  it  out.  I  told  him  I,  too,  was  glad  it  was  to 
be  so.  My  chief  fear  had  been  lest  the  Boers  should  be  jockeyed  out 
of  their  independence  without  fighting.  Besides,  I  look  upon  the  war 


1899]  Victories  of  Glencoe  and  Elandslaagte  333 

as  perhaps  the  first  nail  driven  into  the  coffin  of  the  British  Empire. 
I  believe  that  if  the  Boers  can  hold  out  six  months  Europe  will  inter- 
vene. 

"  ijth  Oct. —  In  South  Africa  the  Boers  are  advancing  steadily 
southward,  and  have  invested  Mafeking  and  Kimberley.  Their  plan 
is  doubtless  to  get  the  Dutch  in  Cape  Colony  to  rise  and  join  them.  It 
seems  their  best  chance.  Buller  went  off  on  Saturday  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  British  Army.  They  gave  him  what  is  called  a  '  send 
off '  at  Southampton  by  crying  a  bogus  victory  in  the  streets. 

"  Swinburne  has  published  a  ridiculous  sonnet  in  favour  of  the  war, 
and  Kipling  has  also  been  in  the  '  Times.'  My  '  Satan  Absolved  ' 
must  stand  for  poetry  on  the  other  side.  I  got  an  advance  copy  of  it 
to-day. 

"  19^/1  Oct. —  Newbuildings.  Hampden  and  Neville  are  here.  Much 
argument  about  the  Transvaal  war.  Hampden  very  fierce  in  defence 
of  the  Government.  We  shot  to-day,  Mark  Napier  joining  us  as 
fourth  gun.  Violent  discussions  again  in  the  evening,  Mark  maintain- 
ing that,  while  the  English  officers  are  good,  the  rank  and  file  are 
worthless,  and  that  in  a  long  campaign  the  English  regiments  would 
go  to  pieces;  Hampden  annoyed,  as  having  a  son  in  the  army.  But 
all  ended  pleasantly. 

"  2ist  Oct. —  The  Boers  have  been  beaten  in  an  attack  they  have 
made  upon  White's  Camp.  George  had  the  happy  task  in  Parliament, 
as  Under-Secretary  for  War,  of  announcing  the  victory. 

"  2yd  Oct. —  More  victories.  The  '  Chronicle,'  after  championing 
the  Boer  cause  all  the  summer,  has  now  gone  clean  round,  and  shouts 
triumph  with  the  rest.  It  is  a  dastardly  world. 

"  2?th  Oct. —  To  London.  People  are  not  so  pleased  now  with  the 
war  in  Natal,  as,  in  spite  of  the  reported  victories  at  Glencoe  and 
Elandslaagte,  Dundee  has  had  to  be  evacuated,  the  guns  and  wounded 
being  left  behind.  They  say  Ladysmith  will  now  be  invested.  Guy 
Wyndham  is  there,  with  White's  staff  in  the  threatened  position. 

"  2Q,th  Oct. —  Herbert  Spencer  has  written  again  about  '  Satan  Ab- 
solved.' He  is  disappointed  at  my  not  having  stuck  to  his  idea  in  the 
poem,  but  on  the  whole  he  approves.  '  Unquestionably,'  he  says,  '  Sa- 
tan's description  of  man  and  his  doings  is  given  with  great  power,  and 
ought  to  bring  to  their  senses  millions  of  hypocrites  who  profess  the 
current  religion.  I  wish  you  would  emphasize  more  strongly  the  gigan- 
tic lie  daily  enacted,  the  contrast  between  the  Christian  professions  and 
the  Pagan  actions,  and  the  perpetual  insult  to  One  they  call  Omniscient 
in  thinking  they  can  compound  for  atrocious  deeds  by  laudatory  words.' 

"  ist  Nov. —  News  of  a  great  defeat  of  the  British  army  before 
Ladysmith.  Two  of  Her  Majesty's  best  regiments,  the  Royal  Dublin 
and  the  Gloucester,  laid  down  their  arms  to  the  Boers,  2,000  men  of  our 


334  Harcourt's  Opinion  of  Rhodes  [1899 

most  veteran  troops.  There  seems  now  a  chance  of  the  whole  British 
army  capitulating  before  Buller  and  his  men  can  relieve  them  from 
England.  Letters  from  old  Watts  and  Kegan  Paul,  both  in  sympathy 
about  '  Satan  Absolved.' 

"  2nd  Nov. —  To  Malwood  with  Anne  and  stopped  to  lunch.  After 
it,  old  Sir  William  took  me  into  his  smoking  room,  and  we  talked  over 
the  whole  South  African  case.  The  old  man  is,  I  think,  secretly  just 
as  pleased  as  I  am  with  the  success  of  the  Boers,  though,  when  I  said 
I  should  like  to  see  the  Boers  established  in  Cape  Town,  he  protested 
he  could  not  go  with  me  as  far  as  that.  However,  he  spoke  strongly 
enough,  and  told  me  a  number  of  most  interesting  things  about  Rhodes 
and  Milner.  When  he  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  1893, 
Rhodes  came  to  him  about  his  railway  project  and  humbugged  him 
not  a  little.  Sir  William  showed  me  a  map  on  which  Rhodes  had 
marked  his  schemes,  and  he  came  again,  when  he  was  in  England  after 
the  Raid,  '  to  face  the  music.'  Sir  William  says  he  is  an  astonishing 
rogue  and  liar,  but  occasionally  blurted  out  truths  other  rogues  would 
hide,  and  he  had  boasted  how  he  bought  up  everybody  by  putting  them 
into  good  things  on  the  Stock  Exchange.  He  said  that,  though  he, 
Rhodes,  was  certainly  privy  to  the  projected  revolution  at  Johannes- 
burg, he  did  not  think  he  knew  precisely  of  the  Jameson  Raid.  The 
reason  the  Outlanders  at  the  last  moment  would  not  rise  was  that  they 
found  out  that  Jameson  intended  to  hoist  the  British  Flag,  and  that  did 
not  suit  them.  They  wanted  to  continue  the  Republic  and  run  it  them- 
selves. As  to  Milner,  Sir  William  said  he  was  certain  he  was  sent  out 
on  purpose  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  Kruger.  He  had  seen  a  great  deal  of 
Milner  while  he  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  Milner  came  to 
wish  him  good-bye  —  and  he  had  told  him  he  knew  why  he  was  going. 
He  knew,  too,  that  Milner  had  told  Lady  Cowper  at  Panshanger  before 
he  left  for  the  Cape,  '  If  I  come  back  without  having  made  war  I  shall 
consider  my  mission  has  failed.'  Milner  was  an  enthusiastic  Jingo,  but 
knew  nothing  of  Statesmanship.  Sir  William  also  told  me  he  had  seen 
a  good  deal  this  year  of  Cromer,  and  had  been  charmed  with  him.  He 
had  found  Cromer  very  moderate,  hating  Rhodes  and  hating  Kitchener, 
and  doing  his  best  to  keep  them  within  bounds.  He  told  me  that  if  the 
Liberal  Government  had  remained  another  fortnight  in  office  they  would 
have  made  Redvers  Buller  Commander-in-Chief,  instead  of  Wolseley. 
Altogether  my  visit  was  a  most  interesting  one.  I  wish  I  could  remem- 
ber a  tithe  of  what  he  told  me. 

"  yd  Nov. —  A  violent  wind  and  rain,  but  we  are  snug  here  in  our 
wood.  Ladysmith  is  invested  and  isolated.  There  are  reports  of  an- 
other defeat  of  White.  I  hope  nothing  will  happen  to  Guy. 

"  loth  Nov. —  There  is  a  severe  article  on  '  Satan  Absolved  '  in  the 


1899]  The  Queen  of  Holland's  Letter  335 

'  Chronicle '  quoting  Newman,  and  complaining  of  my  profanity.  I 
have  nice  letters,  however,  from  York  Powell  and  Mallock. 

"  2Oth  Nov. —  At  Inchmery.  The  Belgian  Minister,  who  was  here 
yesterday,  tells  me  the  Queen  of  Holland  wrote  to  Queen  Victoria  to 
beg  her  to  make  peace  with  the  Transvaal,  as  so  many  of  her  subjects 
were  engaged  in  it.  He  says  the  Queen  did  not  like  the  use  of  the 
word  '  subjects,'  and  did  not  answer  the  letter.  He  considers  that  the 
war,  as  far  as  it  has  gone,  has  much  damaged  England's  prestige 
abroad.  It  has  shown  people  specially  that  English  officers,  though 
brave,  are  without  science.  They  all  play  too  much  instead  of  learning 
their  work.  He  has  been  nineteen  years  in  England,  and  is  an  An- 
glophile, but  like  all  the  rest  he  disapproves  this  war,  and  thinks  it  will 
result  badly  for  us,  even  if  in  the  end  successful.  We  have  suffered 
defeats  which  will  encourage  our  enemies  next  time  they  quarrel  with 
us. 

"  2.yrd  Nov. —  Fernycroft  is  shut  up  for  the  winter,  and  I  have  gone  to 
Newbuildings,  and  am  to  start  for  Egypt  on  Wednesday.  Fernycroft 
stripped  of  its  leaves  looks  melancholy  enough,  and  the  thought  of 
Egypt  with  its  birds  and  butterflies  is  irresistible. 

"  They  are  making  an  immense  fuss  in  the  papers  about  the  Emperor 
William's  visit  to  Windsor.  He  has  come  in  spite  of  the  disgust  of 
his  own  people,  who  are  furious  against  us  on  account  of  the  Boer 
war.  But  I  fancy  he  knows  his  own  game,  and  hating  us  at  heart  has 
come  to  spy  out  the  nakedness  of  the  land  with  a  fresh  military  eye. 
Our  newspaper  people,  however,  would  go  down  on  their  bellies  to  him 
and  lick  his  feet  if  they  were  allowed. 

"  24th  Nov. —  To  Wotton  to  dine  and  sleep.  They  have  fought  a 
new  battle  in  South  Africa,  and  another  in  the  Soudan,  and  announced 
them  as  two  British  victories  —  victories  I  suspect  to  order  for  the 
German  Emperor's  benefit.  The  South  African  one  seems  nothing 
much  to  boast  of  besides  200  of  our  men  lost,  mostly  of  the  Guards. 
The  other  is  probably  less  bogus.  Dear  old  Evelyn  still  sticks  relig- 
iously to  his  political  principles  with  me.  We  are  the  last  of  the  anti- 
imperialist  Conservatives. 

"  My  poem  is  getting  fearfully  maltreated  in  the  newspapers  where 
I  have  no  friend,  as  it  attacks  the  country  and  Christianity  alike,  and 
what  is  worst,  the  newspapers  themselves.  This,  however,  was  to  be 
expected,  and  it  is  not  the  first  time  I  have  had  the  world  on  my  back. 

"  2$th  Nov. —  Back  to  Newbuildings  and  shot  rabbits  with  Neville. 
I  am  closing  my  accounts  of  all  kinds  for  the  year,  and  shut  up  this 
journal  in  no  sanguine  mood  of  having  anything  happier  to  relate  in 
the  diaries  of  another  year.  The  only  thing  I  love  now  is  my  cat,  and 
I  am  obliged,  alas!  to  leave  it  behind." 


CHAPTER  XV 

LAST   YEAR   OF  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

"  ist  Dec. —  On  board  the  Messageries  ship  Niger  off  Corsica  on 
my  way  to  Egypt,  having  for  the  twentieth  time  shaken  the  dust  of 
Europe  from  my  feet.  The  day  I  started,  Tuesday  morning,  I  lunched 
with  George  Wyndham.  He  gave  me  the  latest  news  of  the  war.  They 
hope  at  the  War  Office  to  relieve  Ladysmith  in  the  course  of  the  next 
eight  days,  but  not  without  battles,  one  or  two.  They  acknowledge 
now  that  the  Boers  are  immensely  stronger  than  they  thought,  that 
they  are  fighting  according  to  the  latest  new  scientific  rules,  and  are 
armed  with  the  newest  of  new  weapons  —  they  are  officered  in  a  large 
measure  by  Germans,  and  are  holding  their  own  determinedly.  George 
does  not  make  too  much  of  the  latest  victories,  Belmont  and  Graspan. 
But  it  seems  to  be  part  of  the  Boer  tactics  to  invite  attack  on  strong 
positions,  and  to  hold  these  as  long  as  they  can  inflict  loss  on  their  en- 
emies—  then  at  the  last  moment  to  run,  so  that,  although  the  position 
is  taken,  the  victor  suffers  most,  and  the  Boers  reassembling  at  a  pre- 
concerted rendezvous  are  not  much  the  worse  for  their  defeat.  '  We 
could  not  let  our  men  act  like  this/  said  George,  '  for  if  they  once  began 
to  run  there  would  be  no  stopping  them.'  So  he  by  no  means  considers 
the  matter  over,  sanguine  as  he  naturally  is.  Guy  Wyndham  is  still 
shut  up  with  White  at  Ladysmith  —  and  he  showed  me  a  most  interest- 
ing letter  from  him  written  a  month  ago,  immediately  after  the  defeat 
of  Nicholson's  Nek,  or  whatever  it  is  they  call  it.  The  letter  described 
excellently  an  attack  in  three  columns  delivered  by  White,  all  of  which 
failed  in  the  presence  of  superior  numbers,  and  it  seemed  to  suggest  of 
superior  generalship.  Guy  had  been  with  a  detachment  of  a  few  hun- 
dred men  pushed  forward  into  an  exposed  situation  from  which  it  was 
more  by  luck  than  skill  that  they  managed  to  extricate  themselves. 
One  of  the  officers  had  suddenly  observed  that  the  rest  of  the  column 
seemed  to  be  in  retreat,  and  after  pooh-poohing  him  at  first  they  ob- 
served it  too,  and  Guy  volunteered  to  ride  across  the  open  hill  under  a 
heavy  fire  to  ascertain  the  truth.  This  he  did  and  discovered  that  the 
General  in  command  had  entirely  forgotten  the  detachment,  and  sent 
it  no  order  of  retreat  with  the  rest.  So  Guy  had  to  ride  back  over  the 
same  rough  ground  with  bullets  and  shells  striking  the  earth  all  about 
him.  The  detachment  was  not  brought  in  without  considerable  loss. 

336 


1899]  Kegan  Paul's  Memoirs  337 

The  letter,  very  simply  written,  gave  a  powerful  picture  of  the  hap- 
hazard character  of  modern  warfare,  and  of  the  extreme  helplessness 
of  the  units  of  an  army  while  in  action.  The  letter  said  nothing  of  the 
surrender  of  the  third  column,  which  was  perhaps  not  known  at  the 
time  by  the  wrker,  or  it  may  have  been  purposely  omitted,  for  what 
George  showed  me  was  a  typewritten  copy  of  the  letter  made  for  family 
reading.  He  was  going  down  with  it  to  his  mother  at  Clouds  in  the 
afternoon,  where  there  is  naturally  a  great  anxiety.  Of  the  victory  in 
the  Soudan,  and  the  death  of  the  Khalifa,  he  seemed  to  admit  that  it, 
like  Methuen's  victories,  had  been  timed  to  coincide  with  the  Emperor 
William's  visit  to  Windsor,  just  as  the  Dundee  victory  was  for  the 
Parliamentary  vote.  Personally,  George  was  in  the  highest  spirits, 
amply  consoled  for  his  disappointment  at  his  not  getting  the  Foreign 
Office  instead  of  the  War  Office  last  summer. 

"  I  have  been  reading  Kegan  Paul's  Memoirs,  which  are  extremely 
interesting.  His  description  of  his  first  school  at  Ilminster  might  stand 
for  my  own  experience  at  Twyford,  a  mere  hell  upon  earth  —  and  I 
notice  that  the  Ilminster  master  had  been  a  Twyford  boy,  under  Bed- 
ford, whom  I  remember  as  a  very  old  man  living  on  in  retirement,  near 
the  school,  when  I  first  went  there  in  1847.  The  caning  cupboards,  on 
either  side  the  head  master's  throne  at  Ilminster,  were  clearly  modelled 
on  the  Twyford  ones.  I  received  a  letter  only  the  day  before  I  left 
home  from  old  Roberts  who  used  to  cane  me  in  them,  begging  piteously 
for  pheasants  to  eat  in  his  old  age.  Now  I  am  reading  Aubrey  De 
Vere's  Memoirs.  The  two  books  are  much  on  the  same  lines,  and  both 
interest  me  greatly,  recalling  memories  of  people  I  have  known,  and 
phases  of  thought  gone  through.  Nevertheless  Kegan  Paul's  is  by  far 
the  best,  being  simpler  and  less  literary.  De  Vere  bores  one  a  little 
with  his  poems,  and  his  explanations  of  them.  I  remember  him  well 
when  we  lived  at  Mortlake  for  a  year  in  1853.  He  used  to  come  and 
see  my  mother  while  he  was  staying  with  the  Taylors  at  Shene.  Mrs. 
Cameron  was  another  of  his  friends,  but  Taylor  was  the  central  figure. 
For  Taylor,  Mrs.  Cameron  affected  a  great  devotion,  and  had  a  portrait 
of  him  by  Watts  hung  in  a  recess  of  her  drawing-room  before  which  a 
lamp  continually  burned.  De  Vere  posed  as  a  poet,  and  we  children 
thought  him  a  bore.  All  the  same  I  have  a  very  high  respect 
for  him  now.  An  homme  dc  bicn,  if  ever  one  was  in  the  world. 
Many  years  later,  I  came  into  communication  with  him  regarding  the 
letters  of  '  Proteus  and  Amadeus,'  which  he  edited  at  Newman's  sugges- 
tion. At  one  time  Newman  had  almost  consented  himself  to  do  the 
editing,  for  Dr.  Meynell,  the  '  Amadeus '  of  the  letters,  was  much  at 
Edgbaston  just  then.  But  for  one  reason  or  another  the  old  man 
changed  his  mind,  and  De  Vere  undertook  the  thing  for  him  and  wrote 
the  preface. 


338  A  Recollection  of  Cardinal  Newman  [1899 

"  It  was  in  connection  with  this  that,  in  1876  or  1877,  I  went  to 
Edgbaston  and  stayed  three  days  at  the  Oratory.  I  do  not  remember 
if  at  that  time  I  kept  a  journal.  I  think  not  —  and  I  may  as  well  write 
here  my  recollection  of  the  visit.  I  had  stopped  at  Edgbaston  on  my 
way  back  from  the  west  of  Ireland,  where  I  had  been  staying  with  La- 
primaudaye  at  Treenlawr,  and  I  had  caught  a  toothache  fishing  on  the 
Lough  which  worried  me  greatly,  and  I  remember  distinctly  feeling 
as  I  knocked  at  the  door  that  I  should  be  thus  hors  de  combat  at  the 
moment  of  my  coming  to  consult  the  great  man.  Nevertheless  my 
distress  was  vain,  for  I  was  shown  up  to  him  at  once,  and,  at  the  instant 
of  touching  his  hand  when  he  received  me,  my  pains  vanished,  nor  did 
they  return  while  I  was  staying  in  the  house.  Newman's  was  a  won- 
derful hand,  soft,  nervous,  emotional,  electric ;  and  I  felt  that  a  miracle 
had  been  wrought.  I  told  Father  Ryder  of  it  at  the  time,  but  he  charged 
me  that  I  should  tell  no  man,  and  I  said  no  word  of  it  to  the  Saint 
himself.  Newman,  though  he  knew  well  that  I  had  come  to  consult 
him  for  the  good  of  my  soul,  and  though  I  had  much  conversation  in- 
directly with  him  upon  spiritual  things,  did  not  attempt  to  argue  out 
any  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  religious  thought,  and  sought  to 
influence  me  rather  through  the  heart  by  his  great  kindness,  and  by  the 
confidence  with  which  I  was  admitted  to  all  the  life  of  the  community. 
It  was  a  touching  sight,  indeed,  to  see  the  old  man  taking  his  turn  with 
the  rest  to  wait  on  us  at  table  in  the  Refectory  —  and  living  his  simple 
life  of  piety  and  cheerful  unselfishness.  The  lives  of  monks  and  nuns 
are  alone  in  some  accordance  with  the  life  of  Jesus.  All  the  rest  of 
Christianity  is  an  imposture  and  an  impudent  negation  of  Christ. 

"  $th  Dec. —  Arrived  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  after  nearly  two  years'  ab- 
sence. At  Alexandria  I  had  to  wait  some  hours,  and  spent  them  in  the 
company  of  Hewatt  and  his  family  at  Ramleh.  I  found  the  Hewatts, 
to  my  surprise,  very  anti-Jingo  about  the  war.  There  has  been  another 
'  victory '  on  the  Modder  —  and  another  heavy  loss  of  officers  and  men. 
I  am  sorry  to  see  among  the  killed  one  of  Mrs.  Earle's  two  '  splendid 
sons,'  about  whom  she  wrote  to  me  a  month  ago.  She  did  not  deserve 
this  misfortune,  for  she  was  very  humane  in  her  ideas,  and  hated  sol- 
diering and  all  its  ways. 

"  Anne  met  me  at  Cairo,  and  we  went  on  home  at  once,  having  the 
good  luck  to  travel  in  the  same  carriage  with  Sheykh  Mohammed  Abdu. 
Of  all  Easterns,  perhaps  I  might  say  of  all  men,  my  dearest  friend, 
Mohammed  Abdu,  after  having  been  imprisoned  for  his  Liberal  opin- 
ions, and  exiled  by  the  Anglo-Khedivial  restoration  of  1882,  has  grad- 
ually become  recognized  for  what  he  is,  by  far  the  ablest  and  most 
honest  man  in  Egypt  —  and  they  have  made  him  our  Grand  Mufti,  the 
highest  religious  authority  in  the  vice  kingdom.  I  gave  him  an  acre 
of  land  two  years  ago,  and  he  has  built  himself  a  country  house  on  it, 


1899]  Kruger's  Dinner  Party  339 

and  so  is  now  our  nearest  neighbour.  When  we  said  good-bye  on  my 
leaving  Egypt  last  I  little  thought  we  should  meet  again. 

"  6th  Dec. —  Coming  back  here  is  like  rising  again  from  the  dead. 
Everybody  connected  with  the  place  clearly  took  it  for  granted  I  should 
be  seen  in  it  no  more,  and  acted  on  the  supposition.  Nothing  very  bad 
has  been  done,  and  some  changes  are  for  the  better,  but  still  they  have 
been  made.  My  gazelles  have  been  sent  to  the  Zool^ical  Garden, 
some  of  the  horses  have  been  sold,  the  house  has  been  re-arranged. 
I  feel  like  a  guest  in  it  —  the  revenant  —  the  ghost  who  has  returned. 
Perhaps  it  is  all  the  more  delightful,  for  the  garden  is  in  splendid  leaf, 
and  the  trees  never  had  a  thicker  shade  in  a  more  brilliant  sunshine. 
Encroachments  in  the  way  of  new  wells  and  cultivated  fields  have  been 
made  all  round  us  in  the  desert,  and  we  are  already  almost  completely 
cut  off  from  the  open  plain.  But  it  is  the  least  of  the  evils  that  threat- 
ened us  four  years  ago.  First  the  sewage  farm,  and  then  the  building 
operations.  So  that  the  new  corn  fields  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  com- 
parative blessing  in  an  age  of  unscrupulous  progress. 

"  i$th  Dec. —  Two  new  Boer  victories,  or  rather  British  defeats. 
One  at  Stormberg,  the  other  at  Spytfontein.  People  will  soon  be  get- 
ting angry  in  London,  and  perhaps  leave  off  some  of  their  music  hall 
songs.  There  is  a  ridiculous  swaggering  one  in  the  papers,  promising 
Uncle  Paul  to  dine  with  him  on  Christmas  Day.  It  reminds  me  of  the 
Paris  cry,  '  a  Berlin,'  which  became  historic. 

THE  NEW  PATRIOTIC  SONG 

Now  Sung  at  the  Music  Halls  and  Theatres  with  immense  success. 
KRUGER'S  DINNER  PARTY;  DEC.  7,  1899 

or, 

We'll  be  There. 
Written  by  Fred  C.  Smale.  Composed  by  Geo.  Le  Brunn. 

Oh,  Uncle's  giving  a  party  and  he's  asked  us  all  to  come, 

We'll  be  there ! 
We're  marching  up  from  Durban  town,  behind  the  fife  and  drum 

And  we'll  be  there ! 

There's  some  from  Dublin  City,  there's  some  from  out  the  West, 
The  Devon  lads  "  be  vitty,"  there's  Gordons  with  the  rest ; 
Oh,  Uncle,  don't  you  trouble,  there  is  time  enough  to  spare  — 

We'll  be  there ! 

(Chorus)  So  please  you,  Uncle  Paul,  light  the  Lantern  in  the  Hall 

(We  know  we're  welcome  as  the  flow'rs  in  May), 
Just  keep  -the  pudding  hot  for  the  lively  little  lot 

Who  are  coming  up  to  dinner  Christmas  Day. 


340  The  Boer  War  [1899 

We've  got  some  little  sailor  men,  we  thought  you  wouldn't  mind, 

They'll  be  there ! 
We  are  bringing  them  to  see  our  Uncle  Paul  so  good  and  kind, 

They'll  be  there ! 

They  have  come  across  the  ocean,  they  would  like  some  tea  and  buns, 
Then  they'll  just  give  you  a  notion  how  they  work  their  little  guns. 
No,  Uncle,  dear,  they  are  not  at  sea  —  they  travel  everywhere. 

They'll  be  there! 

(Chorus)  So  please  you,  Uncle  Paul,  just  arrange  a  little  ball 

(They're  having  one  or  two  upon  the  way)  ; 
Majuba  some  went  through,  and  they  want  to  speak  to  you, 

So  they're  coming  up  to  dinner  Chrismas  Day. 

Pretoria's  a  place  we've  often  wanted  for  to  see, 

We'll  be  there ! 
The  air  with  us,  there  is  no  doubt,  will  splendidly  agree, 

We'll  be  there ! 

Perhaps  I  may  just  mention,  we  are  coming  up  in  style, 
And  with  the  firm  intention  of  remaining  for  a  while; 
Still,  Uncle,  don't  you  worry,  for  mother's  paid  the  fare. 

We'll  be  there ! 

(Chorus)  So  please  you,  Uncle  Paul,  see  that  there's  enough  for  all. 

There's  fifty  thousand  Tommies  on  the  way, 
And  somewhere  in  a  bag  they  have  got  a  little  flag 

To  stick  up  in  the  pudding  Christmas  Day ! 


KEITH,  PROWSE  and  CO.,  Cheapside,  E.C. 

[Nr  B.  Several  of  our  regiments  did  dine  with  Uncle  Paul  that 
Christmas  Day,  but  it  was  as  prisoners  of  war.] 

"  A  torrent  of  newspaper  abuse  has  fallen  on  my  '  Satan  Absolved.' 
The  first  notices  were  fairly  moderate,  but  as  the  war  has  gone  more 
and  more  against  our  Army,  they  have  become  more  and  more  vindic- 
tive. They  began  by  admitting  that  the  poetry  had  some  eloquence; 
then  it  was  found  clever,  but  vulgar;  then  blasphemous,  vulgar,  and 
stupid.  Now  the  condemnation  is  extended  to  all  my  poems.  It  has 
been  discovered  that  the  '  Songs  of  Proteus '  were  a  plagiarism  on 
Meredith's  '  Modern  Love ' :  and  that  in  the  rest  of  my  works  I  have 
been  ever  sinking  deeper  in  the  mire. 

"  ijth  Dec. —  The  third  and  main  British  army  is  badly  beaten  on  the 
Tugela  River.  MacDonald  (John  Murray  MacDonald),  Anne's  cousin 
by  marriage,  who  is  staying  with  us,  declares  he  shall  go  off  himself  to 
fight.  He  is  a  mild  semi-Jingo  Radical  of  the  school  that  believes  the 
British  Empire  has  a  divine  mission  to  subdue  and  occupy  the  waste 
places  of  the  earth.  I  have  been  arguing  the  Boer  case  with  him  for 


1899]  The  Military  View  of  It  341 

the  last  ten  days.  To  me  it  is  incredible  how  any  reasonable  creature 
should  believe  such  trash.  His  wife  and  her  niece  Irene  Noel  are 
generally  on  my  side.  But  to-day  when  I  say,  '  Now  we  ought  to  make 
peace  with  the  Boers '  they  are  all  against  me.  Even  Anne  thinks  that 
the  rights  of  the  blood  feud  forbid  that.  Yet  what  absurdity!  War, 
when  it  is  a  war  of  aggression,  as  they  all  admit  that  this  is,  is  mere 
murder,  and  though  it  is  humiliating  to  make  peace  on  a  defeat,  it  can't 
be  surely  right  to  go  on. 

"  As  to  the  wisdom  of  persisting,  the  Boers  are  really  better  soldiers 
than  ours.  We  had  a  few  good  regiments  to  begin  with,  but  they  are 
pretty  well  used  up  now,  and  the  rest  is  of  a  feeble  kind.  Our  army, 
if  it  can  fight,  cannot  march,  and  has  to  stick  to  the  lines  of  railway. 
Our  superior  numbers  are  consequently  of  little  advantage.  The  Boers 
are  making  a  splendid  fight  for  their  freedom,  and  are  winning  all 
along  the  line.  Every  honest  man,  English  or  not,  ought  to  rejoice. 
Instead  of  this,  we  English  are  in  league  with  the  Americans,  we,  who 
were  the  two  peoples  who  have  posed  as  champions  of  freedom  in  the 
world,  to  subdue  two  small,  weak  nations,  the  Boers  and  the  Filipinos, 
fighting  for  their  independence,  and  not  a  word  of  disapproval  is  heard 
amongst  us. 

"  Young  Walter  Gaisford,  Talbot's  A.D.C.,  was  here  the  other  day, 
lamenting  that  the  Khalifa  and  his  dervishes  had  all  been  killed,  so 
that  there  would  be  nobody  left  to  shoot,  he  complained,  even  in  the 
Soudan.  '  There  is  hope,  however,  that,  when  the  Boers  are  polished 
off,  we  may  go  on  to  a  war  with  Abyssinia  when  more  sport  will  be  to 
be  had/  This  is  the  way  our  young  fellows  look  at  war  ('a  high  old 
rabbit  shoot').  It  is  good  for  them  and  the  world  that  they  have  at 
last  met  their  match.  War  will  be  unpopular  enough  in  England  soon 
if  it  goes  on  as  at  present,  and  there  will  be  a  chance  then  for  the  weak 
nations  to  remain  unmolested. 

"  2O//i  Dec. —  Prince  Aziz  was  here  yesterday  and  told  me  things 
that  were  interesting.  He  was  once  a  lieutenant  in  the  i6th  Lancers, 
and  talks  intelligently  about  the  war.  Gatacre,  he  says,  was  always  a 
fool,  violent  and  abusive  to  the  natives  in  India.  He  had  been  certain 
he  would  get  into  trouble  when  it  came  to  fighting.  The  Prince  holds 
the  British  Army  cheap.  They  would  never  have  been  able  to  get  to 
Omdurman  but  for  the  Egyptian  troops,  who  did  all  the  work  and  all 
the  fighting,  and  in  South  Africa  they  were  inferior  in  everything  to 
the  Boers.  Things  have  come  to  a  pretty  pass  when  this  fat  Egyptian 
Prince  can  hold  such  opinions.  But  they  are  perfectly  justified.  Kitch- 
ener, as  a  last  hope  of  saving  the  situation,  has  been  named  Chief  of 
the  Staff  to  Roberts,  and  is  to  start  at  once  for  the  Cape.  The  Dutch 
in  Cape  Colony  are  in  revolt.  The  English  newspapers  say  there  has 
not  been  such  a  position  of  things  since  the  Indian  Mutiny.  It  is 


342  Kitchener  Sent  to  South  Africa  [1899 

thought  old  Roberts,  who  is  popular  with  our  rank-and-file,  will  be  able 
to  restore  confidence.  But  he  is  too  old  for  serious  work,  and  they 
have  shoved  Kitchener  forward  to  the  real  command.  I  don't  believe 
either  of  them  is  a  bit  better  than  our  beaten  Generals,  I  had  long 
talks  with  Roberts  in  India  years  ago,  and  he  gave  me  a  poor  notion 
of  his  intelligence,  good  old  fellow  as  he  is.  As  for  Kitchener,  he 
knows  nothing  of  European  war,  and  his  Soudanese  experience  will 
serve  him  little.  He  has  the  curse  on  him  of  the  Mahdi's  head,  and 
deserves  to  fail.  There  is  a  paragraph  in  the  papers  this  week  giving 
an  account  of  the  Khalifa's  end,  and  how  courageously  he  met  it.  This 
man  has  been  uniformly  represented  as  a  contemptible  coward.  Yet 
he  met  death  as  nobly  as  any  of  Plutarch's  heroes. 

"  2$th  Dec.  —  Christmas  Day.  Kitchener  has  left  Egypt.  Though 
he  sailed  from  Alexandria  he  had  not  the  grace  to  go  to  Montaza,  where 
the  Khedive  was,  to  bid  him  good-bye.  Yet  he  has  been  drawing 
£6,000  a  year  latterly  from  the  Egyptian  Treasury,  and  high  pay  for 
the  last  fifteen  years.  A  bearer  of  the  white  man's  burden  at  £6,000  a 
year 


Dec.  —  I  have  received  a  nice  letter  from  old  Herbert  Spencer 
about  the  attacks  made  on  my  poem  by  the  critics,  and  saying  he  thinks 
I  was  probably  right  when  I  told  him  I  thought  it  would  need  a  for- 
eign army  landed  on  our  shores  to  bring  us  quite  to  our  sober  senses. 
There  is  at  present  a  lull  in  the  South  African  fighting,  the  Boers  wait- 
ing to  be  attacked  again  and  the  English  not  having  got  their  second 
wind. 

"  Margaret  Talbot  came  to-day  and  spent  the  afternoon.  Her  hus- 
band is  in  command  here  of  the  English  garrison,  and  is,  of  course, 
much  grieved  at  the  way  the  Boer  War  is  going.  He  would  like  to  be 
there,  but  at  the  same  time  would  dread  the  responsibility  of  failure 
where  so  many  others  have  failed.  She  described  Kitchener's  de- 
parture. He  was  only  half  an  hour  at  Cairo  —  the  time  between  one 
train  and  another,  and  said  hardly  a  word  to  anyone.  No  one  here 
regrets  him,  for  he  has  made  no  friends. 

"  3ist  Dec.  —  The  last  year  of  the  iSoo's  ends  disastrously  for  Eng- 
land, or  rather  for  the  British  Empire.  For  England  can  only  gain  by 
the  break-up  of  that  imposture.  I  think  now  there  really  is.  some  chance 
of  such  a  consummation,  for  we  are  sending  the  whole  of  our  armed 
force  into  South  Africa,  where  it  is  likely  to  become  engulfed,  and  we 
have  got  the  whole  sentiment  of  the  world,  civilized  and  uncivilized, 
against  us. 

Thou  hast  deserved  men's  hatred  —  they  shall  hate  thee; 
Thou  hast  deserved  men's  fear  —  their  fear  shall  kill; 
Thou  hast  thy  foot  upon  the  weak,  the  weakest 
With  his  armed  head  shall  bite  thee  on  the  heel. 


I9°°J  Kaiser  Wilhelm's  Rescript  343 

"  Percy  Wyndham  writes :  '  In  this  terrible  struggle  in  South  Africa 
we  see  a  picture  in  little  of  what  will  be  the  close  of  the  present  dis- 
pensation, to  use  the  language  of  those  who  believe  in  prophecy,  when 
the  survivors  of  Teutonic  blood  will  fight  for  the  mastery  of  the  world 
—  in  that  struggle  the  Dutch,  South  African  or  Native,  will  have  a 
look  in.' 

"  Two  young  British  officers  were  here  this  afternoon.  They  are 
both  agog  to  join  the  fighting,  looking  at  the  whole  thing  entirely  from 
the  professional  point  of  view.  'If  we  are  not  in  this  show,'  they  said, 
emphatically,  '  we  may  as  well  hang  up  our  hats.' 

"  ist  Jan.,  1900. —  The  Emperor  William,  the  papers  say,  has  issued 
a  rescript,  ordaining  that  the  new  Christian  Century  is  to  begin  in  Ger- 
many to-day.  This,  if  true,  goes  one  better  than  Carlyle's  Emperor, 
who  was  super  grammaticam.  I  find  the  Moslem  centuries  go  down  to 
the  end  of  the  hundreds,  and  begin  again  with  the  year  one. 

"  Mohammed  Abdu,  our  Mufti,  was  here  this  afternoon.  And  to 
him  I  read  Herbert  Spencer's  letter,  which  immensely  interested  him, 
and  afterwards  described  to  him  my  poem.  He  considers  Spencer  the 
first  of  living  philosophers,  and  has  translated  his  book  on  Education 
into  Arabic.  I  also  explained  to  his  brother  Hamouda  my  views  of  the 
rights  of  animals,  which  was  one  absolutely  new  to  him.  Though  on 
reflection  he  said  that  it  was  strictly  in  accordance  with  the  Koran  and 
Moslem  teaching,  which  enjoins  respect  to  animals,  and  even  to  inani- 
mate objects.  So  that  it  is  forbidden  wantonly  to  deface  so  much  as 
a  stone.  In  truth,  it  is  Christianity  that  is  really  responsible  for  the 
brutal  attitude  of  modern  man  towards  animals.  No  other  religion  that 
can  be  called  a  religion  tolerates  it,  but  our  Christian  doctors  have  laid 
down  the  atrocious  doctrine  that  beasts  and  birds  were  made  solely  for 
man's  use  and  pleasure,  and  that  he  has  no  duties  towards  them.  It  is 
only  in  the  last  hundred  years  that  Europeans,  having  partly  freed 
themselves  from  Christian  teaching,  have  begun  to  take  a  humaner 
view.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  has  pushed  it  a  bit  forwarder,  for 
though  it  has  injured  the  cause  of  savage  or  coloured  man  as  having 
equal  rights  with  the  white  man,  it  has  established  our  far  away  kinship 
with  the  beasts,  which  was  formerly  denied.  So  that  there  are  a  few 
amongst  us  who  begin  to  doubt  our  right  to  bird  and  beast  slaughter. 
My  own  view  is  that  wild  birds  and  beasts  who  do  no  harm  to  man 
have  a  right  to  be  left  in  absolute  peace.  But  that  those  whom  we 
help  to  breed  by  giving  them  protection  may  fairly  pay  a  certain  tribute, 
just  as  our  tame  beasts  are  made  to  do,  though  the  higher  law  would 
be  to  let  all  live.  We  argue  these  things  nightly  at  dinner. 

"  5//i  to  io//i  Jan. —  We  were  occupied  with  a  desert  excursion  to 
within  sight  of  Ismalia  on  the  Suez  Canal  and  back,  our  furthermost 
point  being  a  prominent  dark  brown  rock,  which  stands  some  hundred 


344  The  British  Empire  in  Danger  [1900 

feet  above  the  plain  overlooking  the  Bitter  Lake.  From  this  point 
we  marched  north  north-west  to  the  Sand-hills  and  the  Wady  Tumey- 
lat.  The  following  day,  the  Qth  January,  Anne  and  I  made  a  long 
camel  trot  of  six  hours  across  the  gravel  plain,  crossing  Wady  Jaffra 
to  another  conspicuous  rock  south  of  Belbeis,  and  so  on  the  loth  back 
to  Sheykh  Obeyd.  It  was  a  pleasant  excursion,  but  contains  little  worth 
recording. 

"  loth  Jan. —  Mohammed  Abdu  was  here  to-day,  and  confirms  to  the 
full  the  accounts  of  Kitchener's  dealings  with  the  Mahdi's  head  as  I 
gave  it  last  summer  in  the  '  Daily  News/  especially  as  to  Cromer's  dis- 
approval of  it  and  his  dislike  of  Kitchener.  We  agreed  that  at  last 
God's  Providence  was  moved  to  anger  against  these  abominations,  and 
that  England's  Empire  would  go  the  way  of  all  the  rest. 

"  There  is  a  letter  in  the  '  Times  '  just  come  which  I  think  caps  every- 
thing yet  written  for  absurd  bombast.  Its  author  is  old  Reid,  the  naval 
constructor,  a  former  Gladstonian  Radical,  and  still  M.P.  It  shows  to 
what  a  pass  of  self-glorification  we  English  have  come,  for  the  Radicals 
are  worse  now  than  the  extremest  Tories,  and  I  have  had  to  write  home 
to  tell  them  to  cease  sending  me  the  '  Daily  Chronicle  '  and  the  '  Man- 
chester Guardian,'  and  replace  them  with  the  '  Daily  Mail '  and  '  Morn- 
ing Post.'  The  only  London  paper  that  speaks  a  word  of  sense  is  the 
'  Westminster  Gazette.'  Here  is  the  concluding  paragraph : 

" '  May  I  add,  Sir,  that  my  thoughts  search  history  in  vain  for  any 
spectacle  of  national  heroism  greater  than,  or  equal  to,  that  which  Great 
Britain  and  her  truly  noble  colonies  are  presenting  to  the  world  at  this 
moment.  The  crafty  and  foreigner-aided  enemy  lies  in  our  territory 
and  across  our  path,  with  shell  guns  on  every  available  hill,  and  trenches 
dug  between ;  with  barbed  wire  stretched  to  protect  their  cunningly  de- 
vised lairs,  and  cover  spread  to  conceal  their  more  or  less  rebellious 
persons.  Their  power  to  deal  out  death  and  mutilation  is  their  delight ; 
their  skill  in  doing  so  is  their  pride ;  and  it  is  known  that  the  flag  which 
they  most  hate  is  the  Union  Jack,  the  very  symbol  of  freedom  and 
equality  throughout  the  world.  They  have  done  their  level  and  their 
unlevel  best  to  slay  our  men  and  lower  our  flag  on  our  own  soil.  They 
are  difficult  to  tackle,  for  they  fight  lurking,  and  fly  alike  from  cold 
steel  and  the  open  field.  All  that  human  heroism  combined  with  ani- 
mal cunning  can  perform  they  will  do  against  us,  and  they  will  add  to 
these  such  prayers  as  even  ignoble  lips  oft  dare  to  address  to  the  God  of 
battles.  But  have  they  alarmed  us  ?  Have  they  "  frightened  the  isle 
from  its  propriety?  "  Have  they  detached  one  colony  from  the  mother- 
land? Have  they  caused  young  or  old,  citizen  or  noble,  poor  or  rich, 
small  or  great,  worldling  or  worshipful,  in  any  part  of  this  Imperial 
Realm  to  shrink  or  hold  back  from  the  encounters,  however  deadly,  to 
which  they  have  challenged  us?  No,  Sir,  there  has  sprung  from  every 


1900]  Professor  Mivart's  Declaration  345 

part  of  the  Empire  a  flame  of  patriotism  and  of  heroism  so  high  that 
the  whole  world  is,  so  to  speak,  alight  with  it,  and,  depend  upon  it,  while 
we  rejoice,  the  world  wonders  and  admires.' " x 

N.B.  The  total  Boer  population  thus  described  as  menacing  the 
British  Empire,  with  its  200,000,000  souls,  is  exactly  that  of  Brighton. 

"  i$th  Jan. —  I  have  been  reading  Mivart's  article  on  the  '  Continuity 
of  Catholicism/  which  has  raised  a  tempest  against  him.  It  is  certainly 
the  most  daring  declaration  ever  made  in  articulo  mortis,  for  poor 
Mivart  is,  I  believe,  dying.  If,  forty  years  ago,  I  had  found  a  Catholic 
writer  equally  bold,  I  should  have  been  saved  from  much  infidelity,  but 
now  it  is  too  late.  Mivart  is  clinging  desperately  to  his  faith,  but  it  is 
at  bottom  an  impossible  thing  to  reconcile  science  with  any  form  of 
Christianity. 

"  2ist  Jan. —  A  letter  in  verse  about  'Satan  Absolved,'  from  Sir 
Wilfrid  Lawson,  which  is  bad  verse  but  amusing : 

Bray  ton,  gth  Jan.  1900 

Your  work  on  the  Devil,  dear  Blunt,  I  have  read. 
What  a  curious  fancy  to  enter  your  head! 
The  World,  I  admit,  is  as  bad  as  can  be ; 
But  how  he'll  make  it  better  I  scarcely  can  see. 
I  fancy  if  matters  were  right  understood 
There's  a  Spirit  of  bad  and  a  spirit  of  good, 
They're  continually  fighting  in  battle  array 
Each  pulling  like  mad  in  a  different  way, 
The  one  is  Jehovah,  Jove,  Lord,  Names  like  these, 
The  other  is  the  Devil  as  bad  as  you  please. 
Then  between  these  two  powers  comes  man  on  the  scene, 
Where  he  comes  from  there's  no  one  can  tell  us,  I  ween; 
But  still  here  he  is  with  a  body  and  soul 
Designed,  I  imagine,  for  filling  some  role. 
His  rudder  is  conscience  by  which  he  should  steer, 
But  at  present  it  seems  to  be  quite  out  of  gear. 
But  come,  my  dear  Blunt,  do  not  let  us  despair. 
Even  yet  we  may  make  something  of  him  with  care, 
At  present  he  is  —  you  and  I  never  flatter  — 
At  present  he  is  just  as  mad  as  a  hatter. 
His  brain  has  undoubtedly  met  with  a  shock, 
Which  has  sent  him  through  Africa  running  amock. 
The  nobility,  gentry,  and  clergy  of  course, 
His  madness  by  all  in  their  power  enforce, 
And  all  in  this  country  are  cutting  their  capers 
At  the  murders  recorded  each  day  in  the  papers. 
Well,  in  trying  my  best  to  hunt  these  matters  out 
That  the  Devil  is  in  it  I  haven't  a  doubt 
Well,  I  will  resist  him,  as  long  as  I  can, 

l"  Times."  1900. 


346  Abdu  on  Dumb  Animals  [1900 

And  so  do  my  best  to  emancipate  man. 

Some  good  yet  we  may  see  when  there  comes  to  the  front 

The  excellent  doctrine  of  Lawson  and  Blunt. 

"  2&th  Jan.  (Sunday}. —  A  long  talk  with  Mohammed  Abdu  on  the 
whole  subject  of  mankind  and  the  dealings  of  the  strong  with  the  weak. 
I  find  he  is  as  pessimistic  as  myself.  He  has  been  reading  the  Toivra, 
the  Old  Testament  Pentateuch,  lately,  and  attributes  the  brutalities  of 
Christianity  largely  to  its  connecion  with  Judaism.  As  to  the  treatment 
of  dumb  animals  he  quoted  to  me  several  of  the  Hawadith  enjoining 
kindness,  and  it  is  certain  that  wanton  destruction  of  these  is  contrary 
to  the  sentiment  of  Moslems.  Wanton  destruction  is  indeed  peculiar 
to  Christendom.  Abdu  believes  in  no  good  future  for  the  human  race, 
and  I  fear  he  has  as  little  faith  in  Islam,  Grand  Mufti  though  he  be,  as 
I  have  in  the  Catholic  Church. 

"  Buller  has  had  another  reverse  before  Ladysmith  at  Spion  Kop. 
This  time  it  is  General  Warren  who  has  suffered  defeat.  I  am  glad  of 
it.  It  was  he  that  hanged  the  Bedouins  for  the  Palmer  affair  after 
Tel-el-Kebir.  I  have  written  to  Leonard  Courtney  to  say  I  will  join 
the  '  Stop  the  War  Committee,'  and  am  sending  i 50.  This  though  with 
some  qualms  of  conscience,  for  if  the  war  goes  on  another  six  months 
it  really  may  smash  up  the  British  Empire. 

"  My  once  dearest  friend  Lothian  is  dead.  What  a  grief  this  would 
have  been  to  me  five-and-thirty  years  ago !  He  was  the  lightest  of  all 
light-hearted  companions,  yet  serious  too.  We  made  our  storm  and 
stress  together  at  Frankfort  when  Darwinism  was  a  novelty,  and  solved 
the  riddle  of  the  universe  together  gazing  at  the  stars.  We  have  gone 
different  roads  since  then.  He  to  lead  an  uneventful  life  of  high  and 
various  dignities  in  Scotland,  I  to  adventure  in  what  devious  ways.  It 
is  only  casually  that  we  have  met  for  years. 

"  2f)th  Jan. —  I  have  written  the  following  in  answer  to  one  who  had 
criticized  my  '  Satan  Absolved '  on  the  ground  that  though  splendid  if 
intended  as  a  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  Christianity,  it  stopped  short  of 
accepting  Nietsche's  doctrine  of  Force.  '  Of  course  the  poem  was  a 
reductio  ad  absurdum.  The  thing  that  seemed  to  me  supremely  in 
need  of  being  shown  ridiculous  was  the  worship  of  humanity  in  any 
form.  I  am  not  a  disciple  of  Tolstoy.  He  believes  in  the  possibility 
of  improvement,  in  moral  progress,  and  in  a  far  away  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. I  do  not.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not  mock  at  Christian  ideals. 
If  Man  were  not  the  ludicrous,  vicious  ape  he  is,  but  were  capable  of 
being  converted  to  a  quiet,  harmless  life  without  thought  for  the  morrow 
—  or  ambition  or  desire  more  than  to  praise  God  and  enjoy  himself  in 
the  sun  like  the  lilies  of  the  field,  the  world  would  be  a  very  happy  place, 
as  it  was  before  Man  came  to  disturb  it.  But  of  course  this  will  never 


1900]  Nietsche's  Doctrine  of  Force  347 

come  to  pass.  It  never  even  really  began.  That,  however,  is  no  reason 
for  adoring  as  you  say  you  do  Force  even  tempered  by  Fraud.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  smallest  degree  admirable  in  either.  If  it  is  true  that 
your  worship  of  Force  is  to  be  the  creed  of  the  future,  and  very  likely 
it  will  be  so,  it  is  only  another  proof  of  the  innate  vulgarity  of  man. 
Nietsche  is  an  ass.  The  law  of  the  strongest,  as  we  see  it  in  Modern 
Civilization,  is  not  the  law  of  Nature,  only  the  law  of  human  nature, 
which  is  a  very  different  thing.  The  oak  tree  does  not  monopolize  the 
forest,  nor  are  the  flowers  which  grow  there  trash.  If  Nietsche  had 
been  as  many  years  as  I  have  in  the  East  he  would  not  talk  of  the 
Christian  ideal  as  being  a  creed  of  a  slave  for  slaves.  He  would  know 
it  was  far  more  truly  the  creed  of  the  dervish,  of  the  poor,  happy  vag- 
rant who  scorns  property  and  scorns  what  we  Europeans  absurdly  call 
the  "  dignity  of  labour,"  and  who  is  as  free  as  the  birds  of  the  air.  It 
needs  Oriental  experience  to  understand  this.  The  place  for  European 
civilization  is  the  Paris  boulevard ;  south  of  the  Mediterranean  a  white 
skin  is  only  a  form  of  leprosy,  and  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view  you 
might  as  well  plant  the  New  Forest  with  cabbages  as  have  anything  to 
do  with  applying  the  doctrine  of  Force  to  the  world  at  large.' 

"  Mivart  has  been  formally  excommunicated  by  Cardinal  Vaughan. 
It  seems  to  me  that  if  Catholics  are  really  called  upon  to  believe  that 
the  first  man  was  the  Adam  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  that  all  the 
books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  not  merely  '  contain  Revelation 
with  no  admixture  of  error/  but  were  also  '  written  by  the  inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  have  God  for  their  Author,'  we  may  abandon  the 
idea  of  any  possible  reconciliation  between  religion  and  science.  Of 
course  one  knew  the  thing  was  hopeless,  but  still  there  were  many 
Catholics,  even  priests,  who  pretended  it  was  not. 

"  I  have  had  several  more  talks  with  Mohammed  Abdu.  He  tells 
me  that  several  of  the  high  English  officials  here  make  money  in  illicit 
ways.  He  is,  however,  as  little  in  favour  of  internationalizing  Egypt 
as  I  am,  for  that  would  merely  be  to  exchange  one  wolf  for  a  pack  of 
wolves.  He  is  bitter  against  Cromer,  whom  otherwise  he  likes,  for 
having  established  nothing  that  can  survive  of  indigenous  Government 
when  the  English  Occupation  ends  —  nothing,  that  is,  that  can  be 
counted  on  to  work  on  Liberal  and  honest  lines.  There  has  been  a 
general  proscription  of  the  patriotic  and  enlightened  element  in  the 
country,  and  the  men  pushed  forward  have  been  those  who  had  least 
self-respect  and  could  most  surely  be  counted  on  for  their  pliancy. 

"  5th  Feb. —  Parliament  has  met,  and  the  Queen's  Speech  has  been 
telegraphed.  Pharaoh  has  hardened  her  heart,  and  declares  that  she 
will  carry  the  war  on  to  a  successful  end.  Duller  has,  however,  clearly 
been  badly  beaten  again  at  Spion  Kop  and  Ladysmith  must  fall.  The 
famine  in  India  is  a  new  '  judgment  of  God  '  upon  the  Empire,  and, 


348  To  Dillon  on  Irish  Politics  [1900 

just  as  in  old  times,  the  stress  of  the  punishment  falls  on  the  innocent. 
There  are  three  and  a  half  millions  of  people  now  on  daily  relief.  Yet 
I  suppose  not  a  single  official  of  all  that  have  fattened  upon  India  will 
forgo  a  third  of  his  income  —  or  a  fourth  or  a  tenth  part  of  it  to  feed 
the  people  —  this  although  they  are  subscribing  and  making  the  natives 
subscribe  to  the  South  African  War.  It  is  the  '  divine  mission  '  we  are 
carrying  out  of  making  the  world  happy ! 

"  Osman  Digna  has  been  captured  at  last  and  brought  in  chains  to 
Cairo.  '  A  large  crowd  pressed  forward  eager  to  see  the  dark,  long 
face,  brilliant  eyes,  large  mouth,  and  long  grey  beard,  of  a  frightened 
and  dignified  old  man  who  sat  with  chains  round  his  sore  ankles  and 
swollen,  bare  feet.'  I  quote  '  Our  own  correspondent.'  This  is  how 
the  British  Empire  makes  its  'Roman  holiday'!  But  the  hour  of 
vengeance  is,  I  hope,  now  very  near. 

"  8th  Feb. —  George  Wyndham  has  made  a  very  able  speech  in  de- 
fence of  the  War  Office  and  his  political  fortune  is  made.  I  am  glad  of 
this,  though  his  principles  in  politics  have  been  up  to  now  abominable. 
He  is  no  Philistine  at  heart,  and  will  be  sobered  both  by  the  defeat  of  his 
policy  and  his  personal  success,  and  may  end  as  a  great  and  large-minded 
statesman.  He  was  wise  enough  to  confine  his  speech  strictly  to  the 
War  Office,  and  did  not  attempt  to  explain  the  policy  of  the  war :  being 
a  subordinate  of  very  short  standing  in  the  Government  he  will  not  be 
held  responsible,  and  people  will  only  see  in  him  what  they  most  ap- 
preciate, a  very  clever  parliamentarian  defending  a  bad  party  cause  in 
the  best  possible  way.  The  only  speech  that  was  sound  on  the  Op- 
position side  was  Sir  Robert  Reed's,  which  stated  the  whole  case  against 
the  war  fully  and  fairly. 

"  14^/1  Feb. —  I  have  written  as  follows  to  John  Dillon  in  honour  of 
the  reunion  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party: 

Sheykh  Obeyd,  Feb.  14,  1900. 
"  DEAR  DILLON, 

"  I  write  to  congratulate  you  and  the  rest  of  my  old  friends  of 
the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  on  the  reunion  of  the  Party,  and  your 
resolution  to  be  once  more  independent  of  English  ones.  You  know 
that  for  the  last  ten  years  I  have  held  aloof  from  politics  and  have  been 
mute  about  Ireland.  But  I  cannot  help  saying  now  how  much  I 
sympathize  with  you  all.  The  moment  certainly  has  come  for  a  new 
departure  —  for  Ireland's  one  chance  lies  in  the  check  given  to  our 
English  plan  of  a  world-wide  Empire  which  has  been  accepted  equally 
by  both  parties  and  which  leaves  no  room  anywhere  for  Nationalism. 
I  think,  too,  that  the  iniquity  of  the  war  we  are  carrying  on  in  South 
Africa,  and  which  both  Parties  almost  equally  approve,  should  make  it 
intolerable  for  an  honest  man  to  remain  any  longer  allied  with  either. 


1900]  Trouble  in  the  Soudan  349 

I  don't  know  which  is  the  more  despicable,  the  boasting  Tory  who  made 
the  war  openly  for  the  fun  of  the  thing  and  to  fill  his  pockets,  or  the 
Radical,  who  has  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  that  he  might  bully 
the  Boers  cheaply  and  in  accordance  with  Liberal  principles.  At  any 
rate  I  am  glad  to  see  Ireland  free  from  both  of  them.  There  was  al- 
ways to  my  mind  a  certain  danger  to  her  high  ideal  in  her  connection, 
however  temporary,  with  our  ambitions.  Imperialism  is  very  contag- 
ious, and  Scotch,  as  well  as  English  Radicalism,  has  been  entirely  per- 
verted by  it.  I  have  often  thought  that  the  '  union  of  hearts  '  we  talked 
so  much  about  in  1887  might,  if  it  had  become  a  reality,  have  only  led 
to  the  perversion  of  Ireland  too.  It  is  best  as  it  is  —  at  least  until  we 
English  are  humbled  to  entire  sanity. 

"  I  shall  be  glad  if  you  will  show  this  letter  to  Harrington  and  Healy 
and  Redmond,  as  well  as  to  Davitt  and  O'Brien,  as  I  intend  it  equally 
for  all.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  be  able  to  think  of  you  righting 
once  more  well  together  for  Liberty  as  in  the  days  of  our  old  cam- 
paign." 

"  i$th  Feb. —  Cockerell  arrived  last  night  from  London  very  keen 
for  sight-seeing,  and  to-day  Evelyn  also  came ;  he  is  strong  for  stopping 
the  war,  and  also  approves  of  my  letter  to  Dillon. 

"  Mohammed  Abdu  was  here  in  the  afternoon  and  told  me  the  true 
story  of  the  military  trouble  at  Khartoum.  Kitchener  has  long  been 
hated  by  the  Egyptian  Officers,  whom  he  has  throughout  ill-treated,  al- 
lowing the  English  Officers  to  behave  arrogantly  to  them,  and  paying 
no  attention  to  their  complaints.  The  Egyptian  troops  have  been  made 
to  do  all  the  hard  work,  and  have  been  given  no  credit,  while  the  black 
troops  have  been  petted  and  spoiled.  When  things  began  to  go  badly 
at  the  Cape  Kitchener  got  alarmed,  and  tried  to  prevent  any  news  of 
the  English  defeats  reaching  the  Soudan,  but  he  could  not  hinder  it 
leaking  through.  Then  fearing  a  revolt  he  ordered  the  ammunition  to 
be  taken  away  on  the  pretence  that  it  was  old  and  would  be  renewed, 
but  the  Soudanese  regiments  refused  to  give  up  the  old  till  the  new  was 
supplied ;  the  Egyptian  Officers  were  suspected  of  encouraging  the  re- 
fusal and  some  were  arrested.  In  the  middle  of  it  all  Kitchener  was 
recalled  to  go  to  South  Africa,  and  the  thing  was  patched  up  by  Wingate 
who  is  less  unpopular,  though  it  is  not  wholly  settled  yet.  Abdu  tells 
me  that  the  idea  now  is  in  the  event  of  the  Egyptian  Question  being 
brought  on  by  the  European  Powers  to  call  in  Turkish  troops  to  replace 
our  English  garrison.  This  would  be  a  lesser  evil  than  the  advent  of 
French  or  Italian  troops,  which  would  only  mean  the  Internationaliza- 
tion of  Egypt.  Mohammed  Abdu  knows  that  it  has  been  talked  over 
among  the  Ministers  and  with  Lord  Cromer.  I  am  inclined  to  hope 
that  it  may  really  end  thus  for  there  seems  to  be  no  chance  of  a  simple 


35O  Kimberley  Relieved  [1900 

evacuation  in  favour  of  a  native  Egyptian  Government.  Abdu  has  a 
good  opinion  of  Cromer  personally.  But  says  there  are  a  number  of 
shady  things  done  by  his  subordinates. 

"  i6th  Feb. —  Buller's  third  attack  on  the  Boers  and  his  attempt  to 
cross  the  Tugela  has  failed  as  abjectly  as  the  other  two,  and  we  may 
hear  any  day  now  of  the  fall  of  Lady  smith ;  a  final  attempt  I  fancy  to 
capture  a  victory  in  view  of  the  vote  in  Parliament  for  which  it  has 
served  its  purpose,  though  later  it  turned  into  a  defeat. 

"  I7//I  Feb. —  To  Cairo  with  Cockerell.  The  first  time  I  have  been 
there  this  winter,  after  seventy-four  days  at  Sheykh  Obeyd,  so  that  I 
felt  strange  and  naked  in  European  clothes.  On  the  road  we  met 
Prince  Aziz  who  talked  with  much  intelligence  about  the  management 
of  his  property.  These  Khedivial  Princes  are  all  of  them  shrewd  men 
of  business.  He  also  gave  us  news  of  the  relief  of  Kimberley,  a  tele- 
gram having  come  last  night.  This  will  have  the  practical  effect  of 
putting  that  sad  villain  Rhodes  once  more  on  the  scene  of  the  world's 
intrigues.  I  am  sorry  for  it. 

"  I  called  on  various  necessary  people,  including  Margaret  Talbot  in 
her  new  official  house  as  the  General's  Lady,  and  on  Cromer,  who 
talked  to  me  for  half  an  hour  about  Nile  irrigation,  the  debts  of  the 
fellahin,  the  famine  in  India,  and  such  administrative  subjects  as  he 
talks  best  on.  He  is  certainly  a  great  man  in  his  official  way.  We  did 
not  touch  on  any  dangerous  matters,  nor  allude  in  any  sort  to  past 
differences.  Personally  I  like  him  much.  Amongst  the  plans  he  dis- 
cussed with  me  was  one  in  connection  with  the  National  Bank  of  ad- 
vancing small  sums  of  £5  and  £10  to  the  fellahin  at  9  per  cent.,  to 
enable  them  to  get  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Greek  usurers,  who  charge 
them  thirty  and  forty  per  cent.  This  is  precisely  the  scheme  the 
Nationalists  of  1881  had,  and  its  adoption  by  Cromer  is  another  proof 
of  the  foresight  of  those  poor  patriots  whom  we  cannoned  into  silence. 
With  the  single  exception  of  constitutional  government,  I  believe  every 
article  now  of  the  National  Programme  has  been  adopted  by  us. 

"  24th  Feb. —  The  MacDonalds  and  Irene,  and  her  brother  are  gone 
to  Greece,  after  staying  here  three  months.  She  is  an  attractive  child, 
clever  and  pretty  —  and  her  brother,  Byron,  interesting,  because  quite 
uneducated,  with  a  good  heart  and  much  sense.  Young  Ward  was 
here  yesterday,  who  is  acting  as  correspondent  to  the  '  Times.'  He  gave 
us  news  that  Roberts,  having  raised  the  siege  of  Kimberley,  has  now 
got  Kranje's  army  in  such  a  position  that  it  seems  likely  to  surrender. 
This  is  important,  and  I  fear  will  rehabilitate  Chamberlain  and  the 
Rhodes  gang.  Lady  Lytton  writes  to  me  after  her  waiting  at  Osborne : 
'  I  enjoyed  my  three  quiet  weeks  at  Osborne,  and  the  Queen  is  such 
a  splendid  example  of  wisdom  over  the  war  and  all  the  sorrow  and 
things  that  follow  from  it,  and  she  always  judges  rightly  without  too 


1900]  Milner's  "Equal  Justice"  351 

much  emotion.  .  .  .  You  say  you  wish  they  would  stop  the  fighting. 
Every  one  wishes  it  also,  but  we  must  get  to  Pretoria  first,  and  be 
able  to  get  equal  justice  for  all  our  people  there,  and  for 
which  reason  the  war  has  been  brought  on  England,  and  it 
will  be  a  very  long  business  of  years  —  so  let  us  try  and  be 
patient,  and  good  will  come  out  of  it  in  the  end.  The  spirit  of  wish- 
ing to  help  is  quite  splendid  everywhere  in  England,  and  the  soldiers 
must  be  allowed  to  do  better  than  they  have  done  as  yet  before  they 
stop  fighting.'  This  no  doubt  is  her  Majesty's  sentiment.  Milner  who 
arranged  the  '  equal  justice  '  casus  belli  will  now  doubtless  get  his  peer- 
age. Sibell  writes  in  the  same  strain  about  the  unselfishness  of  the 
war,  and  the  noble  qualities  of  all  concerned.  One  might  think  it  was 
a  crusade,  instead  of  being  the  Stock  Exchange  swindle  it  is.  The  art 
of  governing  the  world  has  become  the  art  of  deceiving,  not  only  the 
people,  but  if  possible  one's  own  high-minded  conscience. 

"  ist  March. —  I  went  into  Cairo  with  Cockerell,  and  learned  the 
relief  of  Ladysmith.  Kronje  capitulated  a  few  days  ago  at  Paardeburg, 
and  the  Boer  army  has  evacuated  Natal,  and  seems  to  be  concentrating 
for  a  final  stand  on  the  Drakensburg  line.  One  thing  is  satisfactory  in 
it,  the  release  of  Guy  Wyndham  from  his  captivity.  There  have  been 
debates  in  the  House  of  Commons  about  Chamberlain's  part  of  the 
Raid.  He  now  says  that  his  white-washing  of  Rhodes  after  the  Com- 
mittee Report  only  concerned  Rhodes'  money  transactions.  I  remem- 
ber George  telling  me  at  the  time  (and  he  was  in  the  thick  of  the  plot) 
that  they  had  played  a  trick  on  the  opposition  in  getting  Harcourt  and 
the  rest  of  them  to  agree  to  the  Report  on  an  understanding  that  Rhodes 
was  to  be  thrown  over,  and  also,  if  I  remember  rightly,  in  forcing 
Chamberlain's  hand  to  support  Rhodes.  This  one  thing  is  certain, 
Rhodes  remained,  and  is  still  a  Privy  Councillor. 

"  $th  March. —  I  have  been  very  busy  getting  ready  for  our  long 
intended  pilgrimage  to  Mount  Sinai.  Anne  is  unable  to  go  as  Judith 
has  written  hurrying  her  departure  for  the  expected  baby,  but  Cock- 
erell goes  with  me  and  my  nurse,  Miss  Lawrence.  We  are  to  start 
on  the  7th,  and  take  steamer  to  Tor  on  the  8th,  and  be  met  there  by 
our  camels. 

"  6th  March. —  Evelyn  spent  the  day  with  us  having  come  to  Egypt 
with  his  daughters.  He  is  in  trouble  having  just  received  a  telegram 
from  his  son  to  say  that  he  has  joined  the  Imperial  Yeomanry  and  is 
going  to  South  Africa.  It  is  the  smart  thing  to  do  just  now,  and  all 
the  world  is  mad  for  fighting. 

"  ^th  March. —  To  Suez  by  train,  a  hot,  disagreeable  journey,  and 
put  up  at  the  '  Bel  Air,'  next  the  station.  Suez  full  of  pilgrims,  the 
streets  crowded  and  gay. 

"8th   March. —  Occupied   in   taking  our   places   by   the   Khedivial 


352  Wreck  of  the  "Chibine"  [1900 

steamer  for  Tor,  and  getting  passports  for  Suliman  and  Hassan  at 
the  Moudirieh.  The  people  there  very  friendly,  as  the  Governor  was 
formerly  an  Arabist  and  the  Katib  had  been  secretary  to  Mahmoud 
Fehmy.  The  place  was  being  besieged  by  pilgrims  come  for  their 
passports,  which  cost  them  150  piastres,  to  the  Hedjaz.  In  the  after- 
noon went  on  board  the  Chibine  with  the  agent  Beyts,  whom  I  re- 
member twenty  years  ago  at  Jeddah,  where  he  had  a  house  of  business 
with  one  Wild.  He  did  what  he  could  to  make  us  comfortable,  but 
the  Chibine  is  crowded  with  pilgrims,  350  of  them,  they  say. 

"  9//i  March. —  I  went  to  my  berth  early  and  woke  about  half-past 
one,  and  opened  the  cabin  window  as  it  was  very  hot  below,  and 
so  was  lying  awake  thinking  over  the  lapse  of  years  since  I  was 
last  at  Mount  Sinai  and  the  poor  issue  of  our  short  lives,  when  I  felt 
as  it  were  a  blow  received  by  the  vessel,  and  immediately  after  a 
second  blow.  At  the  first  moment  I  thought  it  was  an  earthquake 
shock  —  we  had  had  one  last  Tuesday  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  —  and  called 
out  to  Cockerel,  who  shared  my  cabin,,  to  that  effect ;  but  looking  out  of 
the  window  I  saw  a  line  of  breakers  close  before  us  on  the  port  side, 
and  the  ship  began  to  be  knocked  about  by  the  waves.  It  was  very 
dark,  but  the  breakers  were  plain  enough,  and  I  said  to  Cockerel,  *  No. 
We  are  on  a  Coral  Reef.*  I  had  not  undressed  and  had  nothing  but 
my  shoes  to  put  on  to  be  ready  for  all  events.  And  I  went  to  Miss 
Lawrence's  cabin  and  told  her  to  get  up  and  dress  as  we  were  aground. 
Then  on  Cockerel's  confirming  what  had  happened  I  went  on  the 
upper  deck  where  Suliman  and  Hassan  were,  and  got  the  life-belt 
I  always  carry  out  of  the  bullock  trunk  in  which  it  was  and  put  it 
on  Miss  Lawrence.  She  was  not  at  all  frightened,  nor  indeed  was 
anybody  else  as  far  as  I  know  —  though  the  Pilgrims  began  reciting 
their  prayers  aloud.  The  wind  was  blowing  pretty  strong,  and  I  could 
make  out  the  line  of  the  shore  not  far  off  and  the  breakers,  though 
the  night  was  dark.  There  did  not  seem  to  be  any  immediate  danger, 
but  we  prepared  ourselves  for  whatever  might  happen,  and  in  the 
darkness,  of  course,  there  was  room  to  imagine  the  worst.  I  did  not 
stay  long,  however,  on  deck,  but  after  some  talk  with  Suliman  went 
below  and  lay  down  again,  for  it  was  clear  there  was  nothing  to  be 
done  till  daylight.  I  had  looked  at  my  watch  as  soon  as  the  vessel 
struck,  and  found  it  was  seven  minutes  past  three.  Cockerell  and  Miss 
Lawrence  stayed  on  deck,  I  believe,  till  morning.  After  a  bit  I  got  to 
sleep  again,  for  the  ship  was  steady  enough,  and  there  was  nothing 
very  tragic  in  the  appearance  of  things. 

"  By  daylight  we  were  able  to  make  out  where  we  were.  Suliman 
thought  at  first  the  hills  in  front  of  us  were  the  Hamam  Faraoun.  But 
later  we  made  out  Serbal  and  the  mouth  of  Wady  Feiran,  so  it  is 
now  agreed  that  we  are  ashore  north  of  Ras  Jehan.  The  Captain,  Ross, 


1900]  A  Man  Drowned  353 

did  not  seem  to  know  much  about  it.  He  told  us  he  had  only  left  the 
deck  ten  minutes  when  the  thing  happened.  [This  turned  out  after- 
wards to  have  been  quite  untrue.  He  had  come  on  board  late,  having 
been  at  some  entertainment  at  Suez,  and  gone  to  bed  early  without  giv- 
ing any  proper  instructions  as  to  the  course.  No  watch  was  kept,  and  we 
drove  straight  on  a  coral  reef,  without  so  much  as  slackening  speed 
or  with  a  cry  of  breakers  ahead !  We  must  be  clear  eight  miles  out  of 
our  course,  and  it  looks  like  bad  seamanship.  Here  we  are,  anyhow, 
stuck  fast  on  a  line  of  sand  banks  (they  proved  to  be  a  reef  about 
a  mile  from  the  shore)  and  with  small  chance  of  getting  off  to-day  or 
any  other  day.  The  steamer  is  miserably  ill  supplied  with  boats, 
and  still  more  miserably  with  seamen,  there  are  only  four  boats  capable 
of  taking  off  at  most  a  dozen  passengers  each,  and  of  these  one  is 
already  lost.  They  launched  it,  the  Captain  says,  in  order  to  put 
out  a  hawser  for  an  anchor  to  windward,  but  it  was  swamped  by  a 
breaker,  and  at  least  one  man  has  been  drowned.  I  saw  another 
holding  on  to  the  hawser  for  some  minutes,  and  we  thought  he  would 
be  swept  away  too,  but  at  last  he  got  hold  of  a  rope  and  hitched  it 
round  him,  and  was  pulled  up  the  ship  side,  but  it  was  a  near  shave. 
The  boat  drifted  away,  and  is  now  on  the  sandbank  (reef)  bottom 
upwards,  and  five  lifebuoys,  which  were  thrown  to  the  drowning  men, 
are  drifting  on  shore.  The  captain  asked  me  about  the  nature  of  the 
country  on  which  we  had  run,  the  shore  of  the  Sinai  penisula,  and  I 
offered  to  let  my  Bedouin,  Suliman,  go  in  a  boat  if  they  could  put 
him  safely  on  shore  when  the  wind  drops ;  he  would  then  take  a  mes- 
sage to  Tor,  which  is  not  more  than  forty  miles  away,  asking  help. 
Suliman,  however,  is  very  unwilling  to  go,  now  that  he  has  seen 
the  feluca  swamped  and  the  man  drowned,  nor  will  I  let  him  attempt 
it  until  the  wind  goes  down.  [It  was  Suliman's  first  experience  of 
being  at  sea,  and,  like  most  Bedouins,  he  was  frightened  at  being  off 
his  own  element.]  Should  it  become  calm  I  shall  propose  that  we  are 
all  sent  on  shore  here  with  our  baggage,  as  we  are  the  only  passengers 
for  Tor,  and  we  have  provisions  enough  with  us  for  a  fortnight.  I 
am  writing  this  at  9.45  a.m. 

"  1.30  p.m. —  Things  look  worse  than  they  did.  The  tide  going  down 
has  shown  that  we  are  on  a  coral  reef,  which  may  be  half  a  mile 
in  width,  with,  perhaps,  three  miles  of  comparatively  still  water 
beyond  it  to  the  shore.  Also  the  wind  has  become  stronger,  and,  though 
the  waves  do  not  break  over  the  deck,  we  are  beginning  to  heel  over 
in  rather  an  alarming  way.  I  finished  Tolstoy's  '  Resurrection '  this 
morning.  It  is  a  most  depressing  book,  and  makes  one  as  willing  as 
one  can  easily  be  to  leave  a  life  so  miserable  as  Tolstoy  shows  it. 
I  don't  know  which  is  the  more  hopeless,  the  picture  of  polite  society 
en  decomposition,  or  that  of  his  convicts  and  political  prisoners  who 


354  Life  on  the  Wreck  [1900 

find  a  dreary  satisfaction  in  helping  each  other  in  ways  which  human 
nature  cannot  really  be  satisfied  with.  All  the  same,  one  clings  a  bit 
to  life.  There  is  a  certain  physical  menace  in  death  which  it  is  ill 
to  face,  and  I  feel  it  more  strongly  this  afternoon  than  I  did  last  night 
when  the  danger  was  vaguer  and  newer.  The  poor  man  drowned  has 
saddened  us,  and  made  the  danger  seem  more  real,  but  as  yet  we  have 
not  even  begun  to  feel  discomfort.  No  water  has  reached  the  cabins, 
or  even  the  decks,  except  now  and  then  the  spray  of  a  wave,  and  the 
sun  is  shining  brightly,  and  we  are  surrounded  by  flights  of  happy 
seagulls.  The  shore  is  romantic  and  beautiful  between  Serbal,  in  front 
to  the  north-east  and  Ghareb  to  the  south-west,  both  mountains  which 
I  love  and  on  which  I  could  be  content  to  die.  It  is  the  physical  re- 
pulsion that  one  has,  that  of  being  knocked  to  pieces  on  the  reef,  or 
drowned  in  one's  cabin.  Two  ships  have  been  sighted  far  off,  but 
they  took  no  notice  of  our  signals,  and  we  are  fully  ten  miles  away  from 
the  usual  Red  Sea  course.  My  own  only  satisfaction  is  to  think  Anne 
did  not  come  with  us.  She  has  a  terror  of  water,  though  of  nothing 
else,  and  would  have  been  unhappy.  Both  Cockerell  and  Miss  Law- 
rence are  cheerful  and  undisturbed;  indeed,  every  one  is  behaving 
well.  We  are  all  three  sitting  on  the  upper  deck  now,  on  a  carpet 
with  one  of  the  pilgrims  next  us,  a  man  from  Mitgamr.  At  every 
blow  of  a  wave  which  shakes  the  ship  he  ejaculates,  '  Ya  robb!  Ya 
robbina'  !  (From  God  are  all  things.  Yes,  all.  Our  Lord  is  mer- 
ciful. Ya,  Robb!)  Below  there  is  an  old  lady  who  puts  her  head 
out  of  the  cabin  and  calls  to  her  son,  '  Ya,  Yusuf !  Ya,  Yusuf ! ' 
The  rest  are  devout  and  quiet,  and  there  is  none  of  the  affectation 
of  merriment  one  would  see  under  like  circumstances  on  board  a  P. 
andO. 

"  loth  March  (Friday).  [N.B.  This  part  of  my  Diary  is  splashed 
with  sea  water,  but  still  legible.]  We  have  had  a  very  bad  night  and 
things  this  morning  look  almost  hopeless.  With  the  rise  of  the  tide 
at  sunset  the  wind  increased  in  violence,  blowing  still  from  the  north- 
west, and  the  waves  swept  the  upper  deck.  I  went  up  to  try  and 
persuade  Suliman  and  Hassan  to  come  below,  but  they  would  not 
move.  The  whole  night  through  the  ship  was  banged  upon  the  reef  — 
raised  by  each  wave,  and  let  down  with  a  thundering  bang  upon  her 
keel,  which  prevented  much  sleeping.  At  times  it  seemed  as  if  she 
must  break  her  back.  At  midnight  it  was  quieter,  but  it  is  worse  than 
ever  this  morning,  and  the  ship  has  settled  lower  into  the  water. 
There  is  only  one  comfort,  she  is  now  wholly  aground,  and  cannot 
sink  lower.  It  depends  all  on  the  wind.  If  it  goes  on  like  this  for 
another  night  she  will  break  up,  and  there  is  no  chance  of  a  rescue. 
There  are  practically  no  boats  and  no  sailors.  The  captain  would 
not  risk  trying  to  land  the  passengers  except  in  a  calm.  Even  the 


1900]  Banged  upon  the  Reef  355 

arrival  of  another  ship  would  be  of  no  use,  as  we  could  not  be  got 
off.  If  the  wind  does  not  fall,  it  will  not  be  our  pilgrims'  fault, 
for  they  pray  strenuously,  with  a  fine  male  devotion.  The  women 
have  been  drilled  to  silence,  or  at  any  rate  to  pray  instead  of  com- 
plaining, even  the  little  boys  shout,  '  Allahu  Akbar.  Ya  latif '  !  and 
the  women  add  prayers  to  Seyd  el  Bedawi  of  Tantah.  For  my  own 
part  I  say  my  usual  prayers  to  the  dead  and  to  St.  Winifred,  who 
may  help  me,  as  she  did  three  years  ago,  a  superstition  which  quiets 
the  mind.  I  have  been  reading  the  Gospels,  too,  in  an  edition  Cocker- 
ell  got  me  for  our  journey  to  Sinai,  parts  of  Mathew,  Mark,  and  Luke, 
the  doctrinal  parts  of  which  are  splendid,  and  as  little  like  our  English 
nineteenth-century  Christianity  as  it  is  possible  to  conceive.  How  fool- 
ish my  Nietsche  correspondent's  talk  about  it  is.  The  water  is  coming 
into  the  cabin,  so  I  must  leave  off.  Miss  Lawrence  has  been  altogether 
admirable  through  all  this,  doing  her  duty  to  me  as  a  nurse  just  as  if 
at  home,  and  cheerful  and  courageous  as  I  never  saw  anyone.  I  have 
just  been  on  deck  and  got  wet  through.  It  has  made  me  feel  more 
indifferent  to  what  may  happen,  and  I  contemplate  the  water  filling 
up  the  cabin  and  drowning  us  without  much  repugnance.  It  is  the 
getting  wet  that  one  really  dislikes.  It  is  now  7.30  a.m.,  and  we  hope 
the  wind  is  lulling,  otherwise  our  prospects  are  poor. 

"  1 1  a.m. —  Though  things  remain  precisely  as  yesterday,  and  with 
rather  less  chance  of  a  good  issue,  for  the  wind  blows  as  hard  as  ever, 
everybody  on  board  has  settled  down  to  the  situation.  There  are  no 
more  querulous  plaints  of  the  women,  and  the  prayers  are  less  in- 
cessant. The  children  are  playing  merrily  in  the  saloon,  the  little 
boy  pretending  to  bastinado  the  little  girl  on  the  soles  of  her  feet, 
and  there  is  a  group  of  women  on  the  ground  gossiping  as  if  at  market. 
This,  I  suppose,  is  in  all  human  nature.  People  go  about  their  affairs, 
however  much  there  may  be  an  earthquake  or  any  other  catastrophe 
impending.  I  have  settled  down  to  a  novel,  which  I  brought  with  me 
in  case  of  accidents  causing  delay  anywhere.  There  is  no  sign  yet  of 
succour  from  any  quarter,  and  I  expect  to-night  will  be  critical.  The 
thumping  and  banging  on  the  reef  goes  on,  and  all  of  our  cabins  are 
in  a  leaky  state  at  the  portholes;  fortunately  the  ship  stands  pretty 
steady  on  her  keel,  with  only  a  slight  list  to  port.  This  has  kept  us 
fairly  dry,  though  on  the  main  deck  the  pilgrims  must  be  suffering 
terribly.  There  has  been  no  cooking  done  to-day,  as  the  fires  are  out. 
Also  salt  water  has  got  into  the  fresh  water  tanks,  and  we  may  be  soon 
short  of  water  to  drink. 

"  Later.  In  the  afternoon,  at  Cockerell's  suggestion,  we  moved  our 
quarters  from  the  after-cabin,  which  is  being  much  battered  by  the 
sea,  to  the  upper  platform  in  the  centre  of  the  ship.  There  we  are 
sheltered  by  a  bit  of  awning  from  the  wind  and  spray,  and  the  waves 


356  Camped  on  the  Upper  Deck  [1900 

do  not  wash  quite  so  high.  Suliman  had  already  established  him- 
self there,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  have  our  little  camp  with  him  altogether 
as  if  we  were  in  the  desert.  The  sight  of  the  waves  breaking  over  the 
reef  is  interesting,  and  there  are  seagulls  to  watch  and  floating  sea- 
weed, and  one  can  mark  the  variations  in  strength  of  the  wind ;  the 
centre  of  the  ship,  too,  is  free  from  the  thumping  of  the  stern,  and 
we  have  a  feeling  here  that  even  if  she  breaks  in  two,  the  fore  half 
where  we  are  would  remain  firm  on  the  reef.  Nor  is  it  a  small  ad- 
vantage to  be  free  from  the  incessant  prayers  of  the  rich  pilgrims  in 
the  cabin,  who  shout  in  chorus  all  day  long,  and  of  the  children  who, 
in  imitation  of  them,  make  treble  invocations  of  their  own.  In  the 
forecastle,  which  we  overlook,  the  pilgrims,  mostly  Persians,  confine 
themselves  to  an  '  Alahu  Akbar,'  when  any  specially  big  wave  breaks 
over  them.  There  is  one  of  them  stationed  on  purpose  to  look  out 
for  the  big  waves  and  announce  their  coming.  Here  we  are  settling  our- 
selves for  the  night. 

"nth  March. —  The  sunset  last  night  was  less  yellow  than  the  day 
had  been,  for  there  had  been  a  thick  haze,  and  the  stars  and  the  moon 
came  out,  but  the  wind  blew  all  night  as  hard  as  ever,  the  waves  run- 
ning up  to  within  a  couple  of  feet  of  our  platform,  making  one  wonder 
whether  the  afterpart  of  the  ship  had  not  been  carried  away.  We 
made  ourselves  as  comfortable  as  circumstances  would  permit  under 
our  awning,  and  I  took  a  little  dose  of  morphia  to  keep  me  warm 
through  the  night.  I  had  got  wet  through  in  my  European  clothes, 
and  have  now  got  on  my  Arab  things,  and  so  dozed  through  the 
night,  trying  to  fancy  myself  in  Jendali  or  on  Kalala.  Miss  Lawrence 
and  Cockerell  too,  none  of  us  in  much  comfort,  for  we  could  not 
lie  down.  Still  things  might  mave  been  worse,  and  we  were  able  to 
keep  dry,  and  the  wind  is  not  a  cold  one.  The  pilgrims,  among  whom 
we  are  now  established,  began  by  being  not  quite  friendly,  one  or 
two  thought  I  was  masquerading  as  a  pilgrim,  and  asked  me  why 
I  wore  the  akhram,  and  whether  I  had  a  passport  from  Constantinople, 
nor  could  I  altogether  satisfy  them,  as  they  did  not  understand  Arabic, 
being  mostly  Turks  or  Bokharists.  But  the  feeling  amongst  them 
has  quite  changed  now.  This  is  owing  to  my  having  taken  their  side 
against  the  captain,  and  decided  him  at  last  to  send  off  a  boat  to  the 
shore.  [The  captain,  since  the  ship  had  struck,  had  shut  himself  up 
almost  entirely  in  his  cabin,  refusing  to  do  anything  or  take  any 
measures.]  The  pilgrims  had  insisted  upon  his  sending  off  a  boat, 
and  had  come  to  the  cabin  door  in  a  body,  under  the  leadership  of  an 
old  sea-captain,  a  Moslem  from  the  Caspian,  a  rugged  fellow  in  an 
Astrakhan  cap,  who  declared  he  could  easily  steer  a  boat  on  shore  at 
high  tide  across  the  reef,  and  so  carry  the  news  of  our  shipwreck  to 
Tor.  This  seemed  to  me  a  sensible  plan;  and  I  went  with  them  to 


1900]  Our  Pilgrim  Friends  357 

the  cabin,  and  got  the  captain  to  consent,  though  there  was  a  difficulty 
in  finding  men  to  man  the  boat,  as  all  the  ship's  crew  (there  were  only 
five  of  them),  odd  men  picked  up  at  Suez,  were  frightened  at  the 
drowning  of  the  sailor  on  Thursday,  and  I  volunteered  myself,  if 
necessary,  to  go,  and  with  me  Suliman  to  run  on  with  the  news  to 
Tor;  and  Cockerell  also  would  have  gone  and  Miss  Lawrence,  but 
there  was  no  boat  large  enough  for  us  all,  and  at  last  it  was  decided 
that  Suliman  alone  should  go,  with  five  of  the  ship's  crew.  He  was 
very  unwilling,  as  he  is  terribly  afraid  of  the  sea,  but  I  persuaded 
him  there  was  really  no  great  danger.  He  bid  me  a  solemn  farewell, 
taking  off  most  of  his  clothes  and  handing  over  to  me  his  money  and 
his  passport.  Then  the  ship's  crew  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Caspian  sea-dog  as  their  commander,  and  at  one  time  the  whole  plan 
seemed  as  if  it  would  break  down,  for  Captain  Ross  was  without 
resource  or  power  of  command.  At  last,  however,  just  on  the  turn  of 
the  high  tide,  they  got  the  boat  launched  and  across  the  reef,  and  so  to 
the  shore  in  safety.  We  were  able  to  watch  them  till  they  landed.  So 
Suliman  at  least  is  out  of  danger,  and  may  bring  us  help  from  Tor. 
The  boat  was  the  last  one  left,  as  one  was  lost  on  Thursday,  and  the 
two  others  were  destroyed  last  night  by  the  sea.  Some  of  the  ship's 
company  are  making  a  raft,  in  case  things  come  to  the  worst.  Except 
the  lack  of  drinking  water,  however,  I  don't  think  there  is  much  im- 
mediate danger,  as  the  wind  has  moderated  and  the  sky  has  become 
clear.  The  difficulty  is  that  there  is  no  means  now  of  getting  the 
pilgrims  on  shore,  even  if  it  is  calm,  as  we  have  not  a  boat  left,  and 
are  without  water.  We  ourselves  fortunately  have  with  us  three 
quart  bottles  of  water,  which  are  still  intact,  and  a  large  number  of 
oranges,  but  unless  help  comes  to-morrow  or  next  day,  it  will  fare 
badly  with  all  of  us.  One  of  the  pilgrims,  though  very  amiable  to  us, 
has  told  me  the  captain's  throat  ought  to  be  cut.  They  all  think  he 
is  hiding  water,  though  that  is  not  the  case.  There  never  was  a  ship, 
however,  sent  to  sea  worse  found,  or  with  a  more  incapable  captain. 

"  We  have  made  special  friends  with  two  of  the  pilgrims,  Russian 
subjects,  one  a  Tartar,  living  at  St.  Petersburgh,  formerly  an  Alem 
of  Bokhara,  who  has  spoken  to  me  in  high  praise  of  Sheykh  Jemal 
el  Din.  He  is  a  very  superior  man,  in  a  snuff-coloured  robe.  The 
other,  a  Mongol  from  the  Crimea,  who  has  been  a  student  for  the  last 
fourteen  years  at  the  Azhar  at  Cairo.  This  one  is  a  thick-set  heavy 
man  of  the  true  Chinese  type,  or  rather  of  the  Mongol  type,  from 
which  Chinamen  derive  their  features.  These  have  taken  up  their 
quarters  next  to  us,  and  they  are  very  polite  to  us  —  with  them  most 
of  their  friends.  We  have  distributed  a  few  of  our  oranges  among 
them ;  all  complain  of  thirst.  The  most  interesting  of  all,  however,  is 
an  Arab  from  Medina,  a  Muhajjcr  who  affects  the  character  of  a  wely. 


358  A  Muhajjer  from  Medina  [1900 

He  is  the  most  beautiful  human  being  I  ever  saw,  going  bareheaded, 
with  an  immense  shock  of  black  hair  in  ringlets ;  his  face  is  very  dark, 
and  brilliant  as  a  hawk's,  his  teeth  splendidly  white,  and  his  eyes  of 
womanish,  gazelle-like  lustre.  His  beard,  too,  like  his  hair,  is  a  whole 
mass  of  ringlets,  and  his  hands  and  feet  are  of  perfect  form.  With 
all  he  is  kindly  and  friendly,  with  a  peculiar,  inconsequent  way,  as 
becomes  a  saint.  [He  was  fantastically  dressed  when  he  came  on 
board,  with  gorgeous  muslin  robes,  but  these  got  soon  draggled  with 
the  sea  water,  without  thereby  affecting  his  gay  spirits  or  pleasant 
smile.  He  would  go  about  from  one  to  other  of  the  pilgrims  with 
a  pleasant  word  to  each,  and  gave  away  at  once  the  oranges  we  gave 
him.  His  exact  position  in  life,  except  that  he  was  a  Muhajjer,  I  never 
ascertained,  but  he  invited  me  cordially  to  his  house  if  I  visited  Medina, 
and  was  especially  polite  to  all  of  us.  Most  of  those  that  I  have  men- 
tioned talked  Arabic,  but  many  knew  no  word  of  it,  having  come  from 
distant  parts  of  Asia.]  They  are  evidently  good,  pious  people,  and  it 
is  a  relief  to  find  ourselves  among  them  at  a  solemn  moment  like  the 
present,  when  we  have  death,  so  to  say,  staring  us  in  the  face,  and  away 
from  the  few  ungodly  Englishmen  who  frequent  the  bar  of  the  first 
class  cabin.  I  never  marked  the  contrast  more,  and  it  consoles  me  not 
a  little  for  the  rest. 

"  Miss  Lawrence  is  wonderful  in  her  simple  courage  and  good  sense. 
She  makes  us  all  as  comfortable  as  the  small  space  we  have  will  admit, 
and  has  not  said  a  complaining  word.  When  I  said  to  her  half  in  fun, 
'  Your  poor  patient  has  almost  come  to  the  end  of  his  tether/  she 
answered  simply,  '  I  cannot  think  we  shall  be  drowned.  God  would 
not  allow  all  these  good  people  who  call  on  him  to  perish.'  Cockerell, 
too,  is  full  of  help.  He  has  made  friends  with  a  young  Belgian  and 
a  young  English  accountant,  who  are  better  than  the  rest,  and  gathers 
a  deal  of  information  about  all  that  is  going  on. 

"  It  came  on  blowing  terribly  again  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  sea 
has  put  on  the  pale  green  look  it  has  in  the  northern  seas  —  each  wave 
capped  with  foam.  The  waves  are  pouring  over  the  lower  decks,  and 
the  ship  is  sinking  a  bit  in  her  bed.  A  great  ship  was  seen  just  at 
sunset,  and  wild  hopes  were  indulged.  The  sailors  hoisted  a  torch  at 
the  mast-head,  but  the  vessel  was  too  far  away  and  soon  disappeared. 
Nor  could  she  have  helped  us  had  she  come  to  us  for  no  captain  would 
put  out  a  boat  in  such  a  sea.  Notwithstanding  all  this  we  under  our 
awning  on  the  bridge  have  passed  (i2th  March)  a  not  quite  uncom- 
fortable night.  Only  one  woke  every  few  minutes  with  a  start,  and 
thoughts  forced  themselves  on  one's  mind  of  things  beyond  the  world. 
There  were  signs  of  lightning  in  the  hills  in  the  direction  of  Mount 
Sinai,  and  one  seemed  to  see  in  them  God's  anger  in  his  dwelling  place, 


1900]  Last  Days  on  the  Wreck  359 

perhaps  at  one's  impiety  at  seeking  to  set  foot  on  it,  and  for  the  attitude 
I  have  taken  of  having  complained  or  his  dereliction  of  his  duty  and 
neglect  of  the  World  and  Man.  Towards  morning  just  in  front  of  us 
stood  the  Scorpion,  for  the  sky  was  clear,  and  it  reminded  me  of  many 
things.  It  was  then  that  Miss  Lawrence  used  the  words  that  I  have 
recorded.  This  is  the  worst  night  that  we  have  passed,  and  there  seems 
little  left  to  hope. 

"  I2th  March. —  Our  fourth  day  on  the  reef,  which  is  whiter  than 
ever  with  foam  —  the  wind  stronger  and  the  waves  higher.  The  cabins 
aft  are  flooded,  and  the  people  are  leaving  them,  and  crowding  on  to 
the  bridge.  Nevertheless  there  is  a  more  cheerful  feeling,  for  at  eight 
o'clock  a  vessel  approached  which  was  recognized  as  one  of  the 
Khedivial  Line  Steamers,  the  Misr,  evidently  sent  out  to  look  for  us. 
We  could  not,  however,  communicate  with  her,  as  there  is  no  system 
of  signalling  on  board,  and  the  sea  is  far  too  big  for  them  to  launch  a 
boat;  they  have  therefore  gone  back  in  the  direction  of  Tor,  waiting 
we  suppose  for  the  wind  to  moderate.  This  gives  us  something  to 
hope  for,  and  all  agree  that  the  gale  cannot  last  much  longer,  and  that 
the  ship  is  too  fast  on  the  reef  to  be  in  immediate  danger  —  only  that 
the  pilgrims  are  in  straits  for  water,  and  I  hear  that  a  woman  and  child 
have  died.  The  stewards,  meanwhile  (for  the  government  of  the 
vessel  and  the  administration  of  the  supplies  are  abominable)  are 
selling  soda  at  exorbitant  prices  to  the  richer  people.  We  dare  not 
give  away  our  water  yet,  as  it  would  be  drunk  up  at  once,  but  we  give 
oranges.  Personally  I  have  not  drunk  a  tumbler  of  water  in  the  last 
three  days  and  have  eaten  nothing  but  half-a-dozen  oranges.  The 
morphia  I  have  taken  does  away  with  both  thirst  and  hunger,  there  is 
much  dampness  too  in  the  air,  and  the  pilgrims  I  think  suffer  much 
less  from  thirst  itself  than  the  thought  of  it,  knowing  there  is  no  water. 
Most  of  them  come  from  the  northern  countries  where  water  abounds, 
and  the  thought  of  being  without  it  frightens  them,  as  it  does  not 
frighten  the  Arabs.  They  make  very  little  complaint,  however,  con- 
sidering how  hardly  they  are  treated.  I  go  on  writing  my  journal  and 
reading  and  dozing  between  times.  The  sun  is  shining  brilliantly,  and 
we  are  not  so  uncomfortable  for  the  waves  do  not  reach  us,  and  the 
spray  here  and  on  the  forecastle  is  not  very  wetting.  It  is  at  night 
that  the  gloomy  thoughts  come. 

"  There  is  a  Greek  boatswain  or  second  officer  who  tells  me  that  he 
has  been  eight  times  wrecked,  and  twice  in  this  same  Chibinc.  If 
I  get  safe  on  shore  this  time,'  he  said,  '  I  go  to  sea  no  more.  I  sell 
oranges  for  a  living,  it  is  better.'  He  is  certainly  right.  They  have 
finished  two  rafts,  or  rather  punts,  unseaworthy  looking  craft,  which 
I  should  be  loath  to  embark  in.  The  thought  of  the  Red  Sea  sharks 


360  Rescued  by  a  Man-of-War  [1900 

has  been,  I  fancy,  with  all  of  us,  though  we  say  nothing  about  it.  The 
still  water  inside  the  reef  must  be  full  of  them  —  here  it  is  too  rough, 
and  there  is  only  drifting  seaweed  and  a  multitude  of  gulls. 

"  Later.  The  weather  shows  signs  of  improvement,  though  the  sea 
is  as  high  as  ever,  and  the  wind  is  hardly  less,  but  the  sky  is  clearing, 
and  the  line  of  hills  on  the  west  coast  is  beginning  to  show  again. 
We  can  see  Ghareb  and  the  rest.  I  feel  confident  the  wind  will  fall 
at  sunset.  And  the  Misr  should  return  and  take  us  off  to-morrow  — 
but  everything  depends  upon  the  fall  of  the  wind. 

"  Evening.  Our  troubles,  I  hope,  are  over.  At  4  p.m.,  behold  as 
a  coup  de  theatre,  H.M.S.  Hebe,  a  gunboat,  arriving  from  Suez  to 
our  rescue.  The  sea  was  still  very  heavy,  and  the  wind  as  strong  as 
ever,  but  Commander  Taylor  in  command  of  her,  gallantly  put  off  in 
a  whale-boat,  and  has  himself  come  on  board  our  wreck.  His  arrival 
has  relieved  us  entirely  from  our  anxiety,  for  though  he  cannot  land 
us  to-night  he  is  satisfied  our  ship  is  in  no  immediate  danger  of  break- 
ing up.  He  will  return  in  the  morning  and  take  us  all  across  the  reef 
at  high  tide,  if  it  is  still  rough,  or  directly  to  Tor  if  the  wind  has 
gone  down.  He  is  a  good,  clean-shaven,  grey-eyed  little  British  officer 
of  the  best  type.  To  us  personally  he  offered,  if  we  wished,  to  take 
us  all  three  off  with  him  at  once  to-night,  but  as  he  seemed  to  think  it 
would  be  rather  a  risk,  especially  with  Miss  Lawrence,  we  elected  to 
stay  on  the  wreck  yet  another  night  —  and  it  is  well  we  did  —  for  the 
whale-boat  as  we  could  see  it  had  a  narrow  shave  of  being  capsized, 
and  was  unable  to  get  taken  on  board  the  Hebe  on  her  return  until 
the  Hebe  had  moved  down  a  mile  or  two  to  leeward  of  the  reef. 
What  has  caused  Taylor  coming  is  this.  As  long  ago  as  Saturday 
the  people  at  Suez  became  uneasy  at  getting  no  telegram  about  us  from 
Tor,  but  imagined  the  Chibine  must  have  neglected  to  call  there  and 
gone  on  to  Jeddah,  then  rumours  came  that  something  was  wrong, 
and  the  Misr  was  sent  out  to  look  for  us,  and  later  Cromer,  having 
been  referred  to,  ordered  the  Hebe  out.  The  Hebe  was  to  have 
looked  for  us  on  the  West  Coast  of  the  Red  Sea,  but  fortunately  just 
as  she  was  getting  up  steam  our  telegram,  carried  by  Suliman  and 
despatched  from  Tor,  arrived,  telling  them  where  we  were,  otherwise 
they  would  have  searched  the  Western  Coast  in  vain,  and  might  not 
have  found  us  for  some  days.  However,  as  our  friend  the  Crimean 
pilgrim  says,  'El  hamdu  I'lllah '  (God  has  not  forgotten  his  slaves). 
We  are  all  congratulating  each  other  now,  and  the  pilgrims  are  showing 
their  good-will  to  us,  and  thanks  for  having  helped  to  get  Suleyman 
sent  ashore,  in  a  number  of  agreeable  ways. 

"  13^/1  March  (Tuesday}. —  Our  last  night  on  the  wreck  was  a 
peaceful  and  a  joyful  one.  At  sunset  the  wind,  as  was  expected,  dropped 
—  and  it  is  now  nearly  a  dead  calm.  I  slept  profoundly.  With  the 


1900]  On  Board  the  "Hebe"  361 

first  light  we  got  our  traps  together,  and  distributed  all  our  remaining 
provisions  among  the  pilgrims  who  were  ravenous  for  our  oranges. 
These  were  rescued  at  last  from  the  water  which  had  been  sweeping 
over  them  on  the  after  deck.  They  had  been  well  packed  and  were  not 
much  spoiled.  The  best  of  them  went  to  our  friends,  Sheykh  Abdul 
Hamid,  and  the  gallant  sea-dog  of  the  Caspian,  Suleyman  Ismailoff  of 
Astrakhan,  the  rest  I  took  with  Hassan  in  a  bundle  to  the  forecastle 
where  they  were  eagerly  grabbed  for  by  the  Persian  pilgrims,  es- 
pecially the  women.  Here  are  the  names  of  our  chief  friends  on  board, 
Sheikh  Abdul  Hamid  of  St.  Petersburgh,  one  of  the  Ulema,  and  his 
friend,  Suleyman  Ali  from  Crimea,  a  Crim  Tartar  Student  of  the 
Azhar,  Captain  Suleyman  Ismailoff  of  Astrakhan;  our  friend  the 
Muhajjer,  whose  name  I  have  unfortunately  forgotten,  Mohammed  Ali, 
aged  nine,  a  gay  boy  who  was  the  captain's  servant.  Gilroy,  an  English 
accountant  going  to  Jeddah,  Dr.  Edward  Rist  of  the  Sanitary  Board 
of  Alexandria  (an  Alsacian  Frenchman,  of  whom  we  afterwards  saw 
much). 

"  3  P.  M.  We  are  on  board  H.M^S.  Hebe.  At  eight  o'clock  we 
were  taken  off  among  the  first  of  those  rescued  by  Captain  Taylor,  and 
are  once  more  on  the  clean  deck  of  a  British  man-of-war,  feeling  that 
after  all  the  British  Fleet  has  its  beneficent  uses  and  was  intended  for 
other  things  than  only  the  bombardment  of  Eastern  towns.  Taylor  tells 
me  that  but  for  the  telegram  sent  by  Suliman,  we  must  have  been 
several  days  longer  on  the  reef  —  we  might  well  have  been  overlooked 
till  it  was  too  late.  All  is  ended  now,  however,  and  we  can  say  '  El 
hamdu  ITllah.'  In  the  course  of  the  morning  other  ships  arrived,  and 
all  the  pilgrims  having  been  taken  from  the  wreck  and  placed  on  board 
them,  they  went  on  their  way  to  Jeddah,  while  we  returned  to  Suez  on 
the  Hebe. 

"  Names  of  the  Officers  of  the  Hebe  are :  Commander  Taylor, 
Lieutenant  Frederick  Loder  Symonds,  Lieutenant  James  Kirkness, 
Surgeon  Herbert  Gill,  Chief  Engineer  George  Pascoe. 

"  The  officers  of  the  He  be  are  an  excellent  set  of  men ;  they  have 
entertained  us  all  last  night  on  board,  feasting  our  hunger,  and  giving 
us  stretchers  for  beds.  Remembering  the  navy  as  I  knew  it  forty 
years  ago  at  Athens,  these  young  officers  seem  to  me  superior  in  intel- 
ligence and  manners  to  what  they  then  were.  The  Hebe  is  one  of  the 
new  and  highly  scientific  gunboats  which  require  men  of  head  and 
education  to  work  them,  and  they  took  pleasure  in  explaining  to  us 
everything,  more  indeed  than  I  did  in  listening,  for  machinery  is  the 
least  interesting  of  novelties.  We  might  have  been  taken  on  to  Tor  if 
we  had  wished  it,  but  I  decided  against  this,  seeing  the  peril  we  had 
escaped,  and  I  have  a  superstition  against  continuing  a  journey  in 
face  of  a  strong  warning;  indeed  to  me  this  is  more  than  a  warning. 


362  A  Vision  of  Wrath  [1900 

I  see  in  it  a  menace  forbidding  me  to  approach  the  Holy  Mountain. 
Perhaps  another  year  I  may  return,  but  not  now. 

"  In  the  early  morning  as  we  arrived  at  Suez  I  was  awoke  from 
sleep  by  a  very  terrible  dream  or  imagination,  for  I  was  between  wak- 
ing and  sleeping.  The  screws  of  the  gunboat  had  been  reversed,  and 
there  was  a  fearful  vibration  on  board,  so  loud  that  it  sounded  like 
a  storm.  I  thought  that  we  had  come  to  the  head  of  the  gulf  to  that 
place  where  Pharoah  and  the  Egyptians  were  overwhelmed  in  the  sea, 
and  that  an  immense  wind  had  struck  us  from  the  west,  so  that  the 
gunboat  was  being  driven  on  to  the  eastern  shore.  It  was  a  storm  so 
terrible  that  nothing  could  live  in  it,  and  I  knew  that  it  had  been  sent 
by  God,  and  I  heard  a  voice  saying :  '  There  are  no  pilgrims  here  to 
save  you  again  by  their  prayers,'  and  I  was  terror  struck  and  I  made 
my  profession  of  faith  — '  La  Allah  ila  Allah,  wa  Mohammed  rasul 
Allah/  nor  was  I  relieved  of  my  fear  until  I  had  looked  out  of  the 
scuttle  and  seen  the  lights  of  Suez,  and  smooth  water,  and  the  Scor- 
pion in  a  quite  clear  sky.  [I  think  the  extreme  vividness  of  this  dream 
was  probably  due  to  the  morphia  I  had  been  taking  during  the  wreck.] 
I  remember  Captain  Taylor,  whose  cabin  I  was  sharing,  asking  me 
what  o'clock  it  was,  and  I  told  him  a  quarter  to  three.  He  was  sur- 
prised at  my  knowing  this  when,  having  struck  a  match,  he  found  that 
I  was  exactly  right.  I  had  calculated  it  by  the  stars  in  the  Scorpion's 
tail,  which  are  an  excellent  clock  at  this  time  of  year,  but  sailors  have 
forgotten  these  old-fashioned  observations  of  the  stars." 

The  next  fortnight  of  my  journal  is  defective.  The  excitement  of 
the  shipwreck  over,  I  felt  the  effect  of  it,  and  was  once  more  suffering 
in  health.  My  last  days  in  Egypt  before  returning  to  Europe  were 
occupied  in  laying  before  Lord  Cromer  the  circumstances  of  the  pil- 
grim case,  and  urging  him  to  take  up  the  defence  of  these  Moslems, 
whose  safety  had  been  so  jeopardized  by  the  disgraceful  mismanage- 
ment of  the  Khedivial  Government,  the  lack  of  all  proper  provision 
for  them  on  board,  and  the  incompetence  of  the  captain.  I  also  wrote 
a  strong  letter  in  the  same  sense  to  the  "  Times,"  with  the  effect  that 
a  naval  court  of  inquiry  was  appointed  to  be  held  at  Suez  on  board 
H.M.S.  Halycon.  Consul  Cameron  presiding.  This  Court  Cocker- 
ell  and  I  and  Dr.  Rist  attended,  and  we  gave  evidence  with  the  result 
that  on  the  28th  of  March,  the  Court  found  against  the  Company, 
and  Rist  and  I  were  publicly  thanked  for  our  "  public  spirited  action," 
while  it  eventually  led  to  new  regulations  being  issued  with  regard 
to  the  pilgrim  traffic  in  the  Red  Sea,  which  to  some  extent  alleviated 
the  evils  of  the  system  so  long  pursued.  All  that  I  find  of  importance 
in  my  journal  is  the  following  account  of  my  final  visit  to  the  Khedive. 

"  2nd  April. —  To  see  the  Khedive  at  Abdin,  where  I  found  Moham- 


1900]  The  Khedive  on  the  Senussia  363 

med  Abdu  also  waiting  for  an  audience.  He  introduced  me  to  Mo- 
hammed Pasha  Shukri,  the  Khedive's  Turkish  secretary,  and  other 
functionaries,  all  very  amiable,  as  they  had  heard  of  the  shipwreck 
and  how  I  had  brought  the  pilgrim  case  forward. 

"  Abbas  received  me  with  affection,  and  we  had  a  most  intimate 
and  interesting  conversation.  It  began  about  the  pilgrim  traffic,  as  to 
the  better  regulation  of  which  he  promised  help.  Then  he  went  on 
to  talk  of  his  journey  to  the  Western  oasis.  He  told  me  that  he  had 
been  extremely  well  received  by  the  Senussia,  and  had  found  out 
everything  he  wanted  to  know  about  them.  Their  principle  of  con- 
duct, he  said,  was  to  obey  the  law  in  all  countries  where  they  resided. 
In  the  Zaghwiyahs  nothing  was  permitted  to  be  done  which  could  bring 
them  into  conflict  with  the  Government.  Although  they  imported  arms 
and  ammunition,  largely  from  Egypt,  these  never  passed  through  the 
Zaghwiyahs,  but  through  individuals,  generally  poor  men,  so  that  if 
discovered  it  would  not  bring  them  discredit.  In  the  Zaghwiyahs 
nothing  compromising  would  be  found.  He  assured  me,  however,  that 
the  Arabs  of  the  Western  tribes,  all  of  whom  belonged  to  the  brother- 
hood, were  well  armed  with  Martini  rifles;  the  brothers  were  very 
particular  whom  they  would  talk  to;  they  would  trust  no  Christian, 
and  no  Moslem  who  served  a  Christian,  as,  for  instance,  no  Egyptian 
soldier,  because  the  Sirdar  and  officers  were  Christians,  also  no  Mos- 
lem who  did  not  pray  and  openly  show  himself  such.  He  was  evi- 
dently much  impressed  by  their  strength  and  their  organization,  and  by 
the  instruction  and  high  character  of  their  leading  men.  All  this  seems 
to  tally  with  what  Mohammed  Abdu  told  me  lately  of  the  Khedive's 
having  become  '  superstitious  and  opposing  Liberal  reform  in  the  Az- 
har  on  the  ground  that  he  feared  to  lose  the  prayers  of  the  old-fashioned 
faithful.' 

"  He  then  talked  of  his  intended  visit  to  England.  I  advised  him 
to  talk  frankly  to  everybody,  and  promised  to  do  what  little  I  could 
personally  to  dispose  people  in  his  favour.  Lastly,  he  told  me  Lord 
Cromer  had  spoken  to  him  about  allowing  Arabi  to  return  to  Egypt, 
but  he  had  a  grief  on  this  head  against  Lord  Cromer,  inasmuch  as 
Cromer  had  refused  to  allow  his  grandfather,  Ismail,  to  come  back 
and  die  in  Egypt.  Ismail  was  suffering  from  cancer,  and  only  asked 
to  see  Cairo  before  he  died,  but  Cromer  had  refused,  why  then  should 
he  now  come  to  him  and  say,  '  Let  Arabi  return.'  We  stood  together 
discussing  this  matter  for  some  time,  as  I  was  going  out,  and  it  ended 
by  his  promising  or  half  promising  to  grant  Arabi's  pardon.  Another 
farewell  visit  was  to  my  old  friend  and  neighbour,  Sheykh  Hassan 
Abu  Tawil,  now  very  near  his  end.  I  found  him  (5^/1  April)  like 
Job  upon  his  bed,  surrounded  with  comforters,  a  mere  skeleton,  too 
feeble  to  rise.  I  asked  him  whether  he  had  had  the  doctor  to  see  him, 


364  Ouida  at  Home  [1900 

but  he  said  '  No,  he  preferred  to  be  doctored  by  God,'  and  this  is 
probably  best  even  scientically.  I  told  him  the  tale  of  our  shipwreck, 
and  he  besought  me  to  have  a  lamb  slain  for  Sheykh  Obeyd,  and  I 
promised  him  so  to  do,  though  I  have  a  quarrel  with  our  local  saint 
for  the  little  good  he  did  me  two  years  ago.  I  shall  be  grieved  to 
lose  old  Hassan,  for  he  is  good,  and  much  beloved  by  his  tribes-people. 
We  leave  Sheykh  Obeyd  for  Italy  to-morrow." 

My  journey  home  was  made  with  Cockerell  and  Miss  Lawrence, 
Lady  Anne  having  preceded  us,  and  at  Brindisi  I  received  a  telegram 
from  her,  announcing  the  birth  of  a  grandson.  Another  fellow-travel- 
ler was  M.  Cogordan,  the  French  Minister  at  Cairo,  a  man  of  great 
intelligence  and  knowledge  of  art  and  archaeology.  We  stopped  the 
night  at  Ancona  and  several  days  at  Florence,  where  we  found  Lady 
Paget  and  Lady  Windsor,  and  where  I  made  acquaintance  with  Mrs. 
Ross,  Lady  Duff  Gordon's  daughter,  who  was  so  long  in  Egypt,  as  to 
which  she  had  pleasant  recollections  of  things  that  happened  thirty  and 
more  years  ago.  Our  next  halting  place  was  Lucca,  which  I  had 
not  visited  since  1852,  when,  as  a  boy  of  eleven,  I  spent  the  summer 
at  the  Lucca  Baths.  I  remember  having  been  taken  to  see  the  Holy 
Coat,  and  of  having  beheld  in  the  streets  the  Grand  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Tuscany,  with  the  fat  grand  ducal  children,  pass  in  their  carriage 
in  days  before  the  invention  of  the  Kingdom  of  Italy. 

The  next  day  I  went  with  Cockerell  to  call  on  Ouida  at  her  villa 
at  S.  Alessio,  some  three  miles  from  Pisa.  I  had  been  in  correspon- 
dence with  her  on  literary  matters,  and  took  the  opportunity  of  pay- 
ing her  a  visit.  "  Our  driver  did  not  know  the  house  or  who  we 
wanted,  until  he  suggested  '  the  lady  with  the  many  dogs.'  We  said, 
'  Oh,  yes,  the  lady  with  the  dogs,'  and  so  it  was.  Ouida's  house  proved 
to  be  a  nice  old  villa  with  a  high  garden  wall  and  an  eighteenth  century 
iron  gate,  towards  which  from  inside  seven  or  eight  dogs,  poodles 
mostly  and  nondescripts,  came  at  us,  open-mouthed,  when  we  rang. 
It  was  some  time  before  we  could  make  our  ringing  heard,  and  the  bell 
was  answered  at  last  by  a  portly  man-cook  in  cap  and  apron,  who, 
after  some  further  delay,  on  my  sending  in  my  card,  admitted  us. 
We  were  shown  into  the  front  hall,  and  there  found  the  lady  of  the 
house  seated  at  a  small  table,  as  one  sees  in  the  opening  scene  of  a 
play,  arranged  apparently  for  the  occasion.  She  was  a  little  old  lady, 
dressed  in  white,  who  rose  to  meet  us  and  reprove  her  dogs,  still  yelp- 
ing at  us  in  chorus.  A  mild  reproof  it  was,  nor  did  it  save  us  from 
their  caresses.  The  largest  poodle  placed  himself  upon  my  knees,  and 
another  took  my  hat  in  his  mouth.  '  They  do  not  often  bite,'  she  ex- 
plained, '  except  beggars.'  I  had  been  prepared  by  the  violence  of  her 
writings  and  anecdotes  I  had  heard  of  her  from  Lady  Paget  and  others, 
to  find  a  person  somewhat  loud  and  masculine,  but  Ouida  proved  the 


1900]  The  Duke  of  Aosta  at  Turin  365 

reverse  of  this.  In  face  she  is  much  more  French  than  English  (her 
father,  she  told  us,  was  French,  M.  de  la  Ramee,  and  her  mother  an 
Englishwoman),  small  featured,  soft,  and  distinguished,  with  a  high 
forehead,  rather  prominent  blue  eyes,  dulled  and  watery  with  age, 
almost  white  hair,  and  that  milk  and  roses  complexion  old  people  some- 
times acquire,  and  which  gives  them  a  beatified  look.  It  was  difficult 
to  believe  her  capable  of  such  a  malevolence  as  her  novel,  '  Friendship.' 
She  can  never  have  been  a  sensual  woman,  whatever  passions  she  may 
have  revelled  in  in  her  writings.  Her  conversation  is  good,  intellec- 
tual, without  being  affected,  or  the  talk  of  a  blue  stocking.  It  gives 
you  the  impression  of  a  woman  who  has  thought  out  her  ideas,  and 
has  the  courage  of  her  opinions.  We  talked  about  the  inhumanity 
of  modern  Europe,  especially  modern  England,  and  the  rage  for 
slaughter,  which  is  its  chief  feature.  Also  about  Italy  and  Crispi, 
who  is  her  bete  noir  there,  as  Chamberlain  is  in  England.  She  talks 
English  perfectly,  as  she  says  she  does  also  French  and  Italian,  and  com- 
plained to  us  of  the  slipshod  writing  of  the  day.  It  was  evidently 
a  pleasure  to  her  to  talk,  and  to  find  us  such  good  listeners.  With 
Cockerell  she  was  immensely  taken,  and  was  curious  to  know  who 
he  could  be,  for  I  had  not  introduced  him,  and  persisted  in  thinking 
him  a  personage  in  disguise.  At  the  end  of  a  couple  of  hours  we  moved 
to  go,  but  she  would  have  detained  us,  and  made  us  promise  to  come 
again.  She  cannot,  she  says,  now  go  to  England,  on  her  dogs'  account, 
and,  indeed,  they  monopolize  her  life.  Altogether  she  is  a  pathetic 
figure,  condemned  to  solitude,  not  by  choice,  but  by  necessity,  and  re- 
gretting the  cheerful  society  of  Florence,  an  exile  imposed  on  her,  I 
fancy,  by  poverty  and  her  bitter  pen.  '  The  world,'  she  said,  '  takes 
its  revenge  on  us  for  having  despised  it.'  We  both  left  her  with  feel- 
ings of  respect,  almost  of  affection,  certainly  of  sympathy  and  pity." 
[With  Cockerell  Ouida  corresponded  to  the  day  of  her  death,  though 
I  believe  they  never  met  again.] 

Yet  another  visit  in  Italy  was  to  Princess  Helene,  now  Duchess  of 
Aosta,  at  her  palace  in  Turin,  where  I  had  luncheon  with  her  and  her 
husband,  who  struck  me  as  a  kind  of  understudy  of  the  Emperor 
William,  a  good  talker  but  somewhat  brusque.  As  fourth  at  luncheon 
there  was  his  stepmother,  the  Dowager  Duchess  Letitia  Bonaparte, 
daughter  of  old  Plon  Plon,  who  is  much  with  them.  I  was  introduced 
to  both  as  a  revolutionary  character  in  connection  with  my  adventures 
in  Ireland.  There  was  talk  also  of  the  Transvaal  War,  which  they, 
in  common  with  all  foreigners,  consider  an  unfortunate,  not  to  say 
ridiculous,  affair  for  England.  The  meal  was  a  pleasant  one,  and  in 
the  afternoon  Cockerell  and  I  went  on  by  the  night  train  to  Paris.  My 
companion  in  the  sleeping  car  was  Colonel  Needham,  military  secre- 
tary at  the  Rome  Embassy,  who  told  me  that  Kitchener,  who  had 


366  "The  Thing  Must  Not  Occur  Again"  [1900 

been  the  best  hated  man  in  the  British  army,  is  now  becoming  almost 
popular  in  South  Africa.  A  visit  to  Gros  Bois  followed  where,  as 
usual,  there  was  much  interesting  talk.  Among  other  things  told  me 
was  this,  that  the  seriousness  of  the  anti-Semitic  rage  in  France  was 
due  to  Alphonse  Rothschild's  neglect  to  buy  up  Drumont.  He  might 
have  done  it  for  a  small  sum  early  in  the  day,  but  did  not  recognize 
Drumont's  power  sufficiently  and  now  it  is  too  late.  The  Jews  are  put 
in  Coventry  by  all  the  great  French  world.  There,  as  elsewhere 
abroad,  I  found  it  considered  that  we  had  made  ourselves  ridiculous 
in  South  Africa  and  that  the  war  ought  to  be  stopped. 

We  arrived  at  home  in  England  25th  April. 

"  ist  May. —  To  the  Danes  to  see  Lady  Lytton,  travelling  there  with 
Betty  Balfour,  who  told  amusing  stories  about  Ireland,  one  being  of 
a  voyage  the  Queen  had  made  in  her  yacht.  The  Queen  used  to  be  a 
good  sailor,  but  is  disturbed  now  if  it  is  at  all  rough  and  likes  the 
doctor  to  sit  with  her  in  the  cabin  and  look  after  her.  It  came  on  to 
blow  and  a  wave  struck  the  ship  rather  roughly,  which  alarmed  and 
made  her  indignant.  '  Go  up  at  once,'  she  said,  '  Sir  James,  and  give 
the  Admiral  my  compliments  and  tell  him  the  thing  must  not  occur 
again.' 

"  I  talked  to  Lady  Lytton  about  the  Khedive's  intended  visit.  She 
said  the  Queen  would  certainly  see  him  if  she  was  at  Windsor,  but 
would  most  probably  be  away  at  Balmoral,  and  there  was  nobody  else 
who  could  be  depended  on  to  be  polite.  Lord  Salisbury,  now  Lady 
Salisbury  was  dead,  would  give  himself  no  trouble,  no  more  would  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire.  Broderick  and  Lady  Hilda  were  worse  than 
useless  and  the  rest  would  not  think  it  their  business.  She  knew 
nothing  about  the  Prince  of  Wales.  There  never  was  a  time  when  it 
was  more  difficult  to  get  the  duties  of  politeness  done  to  foreign  princes. 

"  2nd  May. — Lunched  with  George  Wyndham  at  Willis's  Rooms,  he 
in  high  feather  with  his  parliamentary  success,  though  things  are  not 
going  as  smoothly  as  they  might  at  the  War  Office.  They  are  in 
trouble  there  about  despatches  they  have  published  blaming  Buller, 
and  George  will  have  to  defend  the  Government  on  Friday.  Evan 
Charteris  was  lunching  with  us,  which  prevented  any  very  intimate  talk. 

"  ifth  May. —  Button  spent  the  day  with  me  at  Newbuildings,  his 
mother  having  come  with  him.  He  tells  me  the  relief  of  Mafeking  is 
being  carried  out  by  Kitchener,  though  his  name  has  not  been  men- 
tioned in  the  newspapers  in  connection  with  it.  He  went  on  to  describe 
the  different  systems  of  slavery  and  forced  labour  of  the  blacks  in  South 
Africa.  One  of  the  great  grievances  of  the  Johannesburg  people  was 
that  they  were  not  allowed  by  Kruger  to  have  compounds  in  which  to 
keep  their  *  labourers.'  -Kruger  was  afraid  they  would  arm  and  drill 


1900]  "Free  Labour"  in  South  Africa  367 

their  blacks,  and  consequently  forbade  it,  leaving  them  to  hire  labour 
as  they  could,  which  cost  them  a  good  deal  more.  The  '  compound ' 
system  of  '  free  labour,'  as  practised  at  Kimberly  and  elsewhere  in 
Rhodesia  is  an  ingenious  substitute  for  slavery.  The  negroes  are  re- 
cruited with  promises  of  very  high  wages,  and  the  wages  are  actually 
paid,  but  once  inside  the  walls  of  the  compound  they  are  permanently 
prisoners  and  have  to  spend  their  wages  there.  To  prevent  their  leav- 
ing with  a  show  of  legality,  a  rule  is  enforced  that  each  negro  before 
going  out  must  be  dosed.  This  has  the  double  motive  of  preventing 
them  from  swallowing  and  carrying  away  diamonds  and,  as  the  dose 
is  an  immense  one,  of  frightening  them  from  undergoing  it.  The  dose 
plan  was  invented  by  the  Jew  Forges,  who  is  now  a  millionaire  at 
Paris.  Such  negroes  as,  having  saved  money,  face  the  dose  and  are 
allowed  to  depart,  are  waylaid  on  their  way  back  to  the  Zambezi,  from 
beyond  which  many  are  recruited  by  Boers  in  league  with  the  mining 
authorities,  and  stripped  of  all  they  have.  The  Government,  he  says, 
is  making  itself  very  unpopular  in  Ireland  and  he  thinks  also  in 
England,  but  I  cannot  agree  with  him  that  there  is  the  least  chance 
of  their  being  turned  out  at  the  General  Elections. 

"  2ist  May. —  The  streets  of  London  are  decked  with  flags  for  a 
foolish  victory,  the  relief  of  Mafeking,  and  even  the  cottages  in  Sus- 
sex flew  their  Union  Jacks.  This  war  has  been  so  little  glorious  that 
our  patriots  are  thankful  for  the  smallest  of  small  mercies.  One  would 
think  that  Napoleon  and  all  the  armies  of  Europe  had  been  defeated 
by  the  British  arms. 

22nd  May. —  The  Poet  Laureate  has  published  an  absurd  effusion 
in  the  '  Times '  about  the  relief  of  Mafeking. 

"  Called  in  the  afternoon  on  Keegan  Paul,  who  is  still  confined  to 
his  room  and  chair,  and  learned  the  details  of  Mivart's  death,  which 
are  dramatically  terrible. 

"  2yd  May. —  Called  on  Father  Tyrrel,  the  Jesuit,  at  Farm  Street. 
Keegan  Paul  had  shown  me  a  letter  from  him  about  my  poem,  '  Satan 
Absolved,'  in  which  he  had  said,  amongst  other  approving  things,  that 
my  account  of  the  Incarnation  was  precisely  the  one  he  had  always 
had  in  his  mind  and  he  had  suggested  my  calling  on  him,  so  I  went. 
I  found  Father  Tyrrel  very  sympathetic,  a  thin,  somewhat  ascetic 
figure,  with  a  nervous,  imaginative  face,  his  age  perhaps  forty-eight. 
We  talked  of  Mivart,  for  whose  ideas  he  clearly  had  much  sympathy, 
but  he  blamed  him  for  having  lost  his  temper  in  the  quarrel.  He  spoke 
strongly  against  the  Roman  Congregations,  thought  Vaughan  had 
been  unfair  in  denying  to  Mivart  an  answer  to  his  questions,  but  all 
the  same  he  was  severe  on  Mivart  for  the  final  quarrel.  It  could  only 
be  excused  by  the  failure  of  his  mental  balance  through  ill  health.  I 
asked  him  what  really  was  the  theology  of  Mivart's  position,  especially 


368  Father  Tyrrel  in  Farm  Street  [1900 

with  regard  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Was  Mivart 
bound  to  accept  the  Pope's  Encyclical  ?  He  said  the  Pope's  Encyclical, 
though  an  interesting  pronouncement  as  being  made  by  the  Pope,  was 
in  no  way  binding,  though  the  extreme  theologians  maintained  that 
it  was.  Vaughan  had  no  right  to  demand  of  Mivart  adhesion  to  it, 
an  adhesion  which  was  beyond  what  was  ever  demanded  of  converts 
before  their  reception  into  the  Church.  Mivart's  fault  was  one  of 
temper.  He  should  have  held  his  tongue  and  let  the  Congregation 
say  what  they  would.  I  asked  him  whether  he  knew  Meynell,  but  he 
said,  '  No,  not  personally,'  and  added  that  as  to  his  Liberalism  of 
thought,  he  did  not  mind  how  liberal  a  man  was  so  long  as  he  retained 
a  definite  basis  for  his  ideas.  By  this  I  suppose  he  meant  that  there 
must  be  a  certain  bed-rock  of  faith  in  the  Church,  however  ill-defined. 
We  talked  of  Stonyhurst,  and  he  was  surprised  when  I  praised  his 
system  of  protecting  boys  from  all  contact  with  evil.  I  said  it 
had  been  good  for  me  if  not  for  everybody.  He  called  it 
a  French  system,  not  peculiar  to  the  Jesuits,  and  said  it  was  much 
altered  now  at  Stonyhurst.  Certainly,  Father  Tyrrel  is  as  enlightened 
a  priest  as  I  have  ever  met.  He  agreed  with  me  that  it  was  impossible 
not  to  believe  in  Evolution,  whatever  might  be  pronounced  at  Rome. 
'  Rome,'  he  said,  '  is  two  hundred  years  behind-hand.  They  never  read 
any  modern  work  of  criticism  there,  and  do  not  take  the  trouble  to 
understand  the  opinions  they  condemn.'  Forty  years  ago  a  priest  so 
outspoken  would  have  saved  my  faith. 

"  Herbert  Vivian  looked  in  on  me,  fresh  from  Abyssinia.  He  tells 
me  the  Abyssinian  army  has  just  been  beaten  by  the  Mohammedans 
of  the  Southern  Province.  He  gave  a  curious  account  of  the  French 
colonists  at  Zeila,  who  sleep,  he  says,  naked  in  the  streets  with  the 
native  women,  and  who  do  every  kind  of  violence,  without  restraint, 
against  the  natives. 

"  26th  May. —  Old  Philip  Webb  came  down  for  the  day  with  Cock- 
erell,  a  worthy  old  fellow,  who  is  leaving  off  work  at  his  trade  of 
architect,  and  is  searching  for  a  hermitage  in  which  to  end  his  days. 
He  has  been  too  honest  to  make  his  fortune,  and  talks  of  living  in  a 
£10  cottage.  I  shall  try  and  find  him  one. 

"  2&th  May. —  All  is  satisfactorily  settled  about  the  Khedive's  visit 
to  England,  Lady  Lytton  writes  from  Balmoral  that  he  is  to  be  lodged 
at  Buckingham  Palace  and  the  Queen  will  give  him  private  audience. 

"  gth  June. —  Roberts  is  now  in  Pretoria.  Our  country  fools  have 
been  in  ecstasies  again  over  this,  though  it  is  quite  manifest  that  both 
Bloemfontein  and  Pretoria  have  been  purposely  evacuated  by  the  Boers 
who  have  not  lost  a  gun  or  hardly  a  man  in  their  retreat.  The  papers 
are  all  saying  the  war  is  over,  but  I  think  it  jnay  well  last  till  next  year. 
The  Boers'  campaigning  season  begins  in  October,  and  if  they  can 


1900]  The  "Yellow  Terror"  Scare  369 

manage  to  hold  out  in  their  mountains  till  then,  they  may  turn  the 
tables  yet. 

"  26th  June. —  I  have  moved  to-day  from  my  rooms  in  Mount  Street 
to  37,  Chapel  Street,  Belgrave  Square,  having  taken  the  whole  of  that 
house,  a  small  one,  with  Hampden,  as  Mount  Street  was  too  small  for 
us  both. 

"27th  June. —  Dined  with  Godfrey  Webb  and  Hugh  Wyndham  at 
the  Travellers.  The  excitement  of  the  moment  is  the  trouble  in  China, 
where  the  Foreign  Embassies  are  in  danger  from  the  mob.  The  Chi- 
nese, after  a  long  course  of  bullying  by  the  Powers,  worrying  by 
missionaries,  and  robbing  by  merchants  and  speculators  have  risen, 
and  are,  very  properly,  knocking  the  foreign  invasion  on  the  head. 
Admiral  Seymour,  with  two  thousand  men,  mostly  English,  who  was 
sent  up  to  relieve  the  Embassy,  is  himself  blockaded,  as  is  Tientsin  be- 
hind him,  and  the  rumpus  is  general. 

"  28//*  June. —  The  Khedive  has  arrived  at  last  in  London  at  Buck- 
ingham Palace. 

"  yd  July. —  To  London  and  lunched  with  Wilfrid  Lawson,  who 
told  me  a  number  of  splendid  new  stories,  and  took  me  to  an  Aborig- 
ines Protection  Conference.  Dined  with  Charles  Russell  and  his  wife. 

"  ^th  July. —  Our  Arab  Sale  Day.  An  immense  concourse  of  guests 
but  few  buyers,  some  five  hundred  sitting  down  to  luncheon.  Hamp- 
den proposed  my  health  as  a  poet,  politician,  and  horse-breeder,  which, 
in  my  reply,  I  said  was  unkind,  seeing  that  in  the  first  two  characters 
I  had  been  a  failure,  and  I  then  gave  them  my  idea  of  how  to  breed 
horses  for  war.  Many  were  prevented  from  coming  by  the  news  from 
China,  where  all  the  European  Ambassadors,  they  say,  have  been  mur- 
dered by  the  mob.  People  are  shrieking  against  the  Chinese,  as  in- 
human barbarians,  and  there  is  wild  talk  about  the  Yellow  Terror. 
I  wish  I  could  believe  that  Europe  stood  in  the  smallest  danger  from 
it.  [This  tale  about  the  murder  of  the  Ambassadors  turned  out  to 
be  a  Stock  Exchange  scare  invented  by  the  '  Daily  Mail.'] 

"  i$th  July. —  Drove  with  Anne  to  Wotton,  stopping  on  the  way  at 
Holmwood  to  lunch  with  William  Gibson  and  his  wife,  a  pleasant 
Frenchwoman.  He  is  an  odd  creature,  much  engrossed  in  ecclesiasti- 
cism  and  the  Irish  Celtic  revival,  in  honour  of  which  he  wears  a  drab 
kilt,  being  by  birth  a  Dublin  Irishman  of  the  Castle  persuasion. 

"  i$th  July  (Sunday). —  At  Newbuildings.  Alfred  Austin  is  stay- 
ing here.  We  put  him  on  a  horse,  but  he  was  not  happy  on  it,  and 
made  ingenious  excuses  for  ending  the  ride.  We  have  had  long  talks 
and  discussions  on  theology,  philosophy,  and  the  Catholic  church.  He 
is  an  acute  and  ready  reasoner,  and  is  well  read  in  theology  and  science. 
It  is  strange  his  poetry  should  be  such  poor  stuff,  and  stranger  still  that 
he  should  imagine  it  immortal. 


370  The  Horse  Show  at  Vincennes  [1900 

"  ijth  July. —  It  is  certain  now  that  the  Europeans  in  Pekin  have  all 
been  massacred.  [Nevertheless  it  turned  out  that  the  whole  story  was 
a  fable  invented  by  the  halfpenny  press.] 

"  3i^t  July. —  The  King  of  Italy  has  been  assassinated.  The  wonder 
is  that  he  has  not  long  ago  fallen  a  victim  to  his  subjects  whom  he  has 
led  into  miserable  poverty  and  ground  down  with  taxes  for  his  political 
ambition.  He  wanted  to  be  an  Emperor  like  the  rest  of  them,  Emperor 
of  Ethiopia,  and  this  is  the  end. 

"  i^th  Aug. —  Started  on  my  summer  driving  tour,  going  by  Old- 
house,  where  I  had  a  long  talk  with  Auberon  Herbert  about  the  great 
affairs  of  the  world.  His  son  Bron  has  gone  as  correspondent  to  the 
*  Times '  in  South  Africa,  not  much  to  Auberon's  contentment.  Then 
on  to  St.  Giles',  where  I  dined  and  slept  at  the  Shaftesburys'.  The  next 
day  by  Rushmore  to  Clouds,  where  I  stayed  a  week  or  more. 

"  4th  Sept. —  Arrived  by  the  night  train  in  Paris,  and  drove  straight 
to  the  Horse  Show  at  Vincennes,  where  I  am  exhibiting  a  number  of 
Arabs,  but  the  feeling  just  now  is  too  strong  against  everything  Eng- 
lish for  much  hope  of  our  getting  prizes.  The  judges  are  French  mil- 
itary men,  of  the  same  class  that  sat  in  court-martial  on  Dreyfus.  Also 
the  Sultan  has  a  number  of  horses  at  the  show  which  he  has  entered  in 
the  names  of  various  Turkish  Generals,  so  as  to  elude  the  rule  making 
Government  studs  ineligible  for  competition.  There  were  some  saises 
looking  after  them,  whom  I  cross-questioned  in  Arabic,  and  they  let 
out  to  me  that  all  really  belonged  to  the  Sultan.  The  handsomest  Arab 
mare  is  one  sent  by  Prince  Sanguscko,  a  very  great  beauty  with  a  flea- 
bitten  coat.  Then  on  to  Gros  Bois. 

"  $th  Sept. —  Gros  Bois.  There  is  nobody  here  but  the  family. 
Alexandre,  the  boy,  is  a  good  talker  and  a  good  fellow,  very  superior 
in  intelligence  to  most  young  fellows  of  his  age,  which  is  seventeen, 
while  the  two  girls  are  charming  and  begin  to  make  a  feature  in  the 
conversation  and  amusement  for  the  house. 

"  6th  Sept. —  To  Paris  to  see  the  International  Exhibition,  a  fatiguing 
affair.  I  went  through  the  Pavilions  Etrangers,  of  which  incomparably 
the  best  is  the  Spanish,  most  of  the  others  are  cluttered  up  with  the 
rubbish  of  modern  manufactures,  and  even  the  English  Pavilion, 
which  represents  a  Victorian  Gothic  country-house,  has  a  certain  vul- 
garity, but  here  in  the  Spanish  section  there  is  an  incomparable  dignity. 
By  a  stroke  of  genius  worthy  of  her  days  of  splendour,  Spain,  ignoring 
altogether  the  nineteenth  century,  even  to  its  bric-a-brac,  shows  us  a 
mere  empty  house  with  tapestries  on  the  walls,  tapestries  the  most 
magnificent  ever  shown,  and  in  two  small  glass  cases  in  the  centre  of 
the  room,  the  armour  of  Charles  V,  and  the  dress  worn  by  Boabdil  el 
Chico  —  absolutely  nothing  more.  The  beautiful  Morris  tapestries  in 
the  English  House  looked  tawdry  after  these. 


1900]  My  First  Automobile  Drive  371 

"7th  Sept. —  To  Vincennes  with  Wagram  where  we  breakfasted, 
and  saw  the  horses  paraded  before  President  Loubet.  A  Fourth  Prize 
of  1,000  francs  has  been  awarded  to  us  for  Mesaoud,  and  one  of  500 
francs  for  Bozra.  All  the  superior  prizes,  however,  have  been  got  hold 
of  by  the  Sultan,  under  the  name  of  Muzaffer  Pasha,  and  with  the  help 
of  his  own  Inspector  of  Studs,  Fuad  Bey,  and  of  one  Hector  Passega, 
manager  of  the  Ottoman  Horse  Show,  both  of  them  being  judges  here, 
has  manipulated  the  jury  and  swept  the  board.  There  was  only  one 
first-class  stallion  in  the  Ottoman  show,  sent  from  Bagdad,  and  that 
has  been  left  out  of  the  prize  list.  The  others  are  rather  ordinary 
beasts,  the  First  Prize  being  taken  by  a  small  black  stallion,  whose 
colour  is  his  chief  recommendation.  Only  one  is  fit  to  show  at  all  with 
ours;  however,  it  does  not  much  matter,  as  we  have  had  many  ad- 
mirers of  a  serious  kind,  and  have  already  sold  one  mare,  Makbula, 
to  Count  Strogonoff  for  10,000  francs. 

"  To-day  is  Berthe's  wedding-day,  and  I  have  written  her  a  sonnet. 
Giovanni  Borghese  and  Madame  de  Jaucourt,  a  friend  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  have  come.  After  dinner,  there  were  fireworks  in  the  park, 
and  a  crowd  of  people  from  the  neighbourhood. 

"  8th  Sept. —  With  Berthe  in  her  new  automobile  to  Paris  for  the 
day,  going  at  about  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  It  is  certainly  an  exhilarat- 
ing experience,  quite  new  to  me,  and  if  the  machine  could  be  made 
cheaper  (hers  cost  £800,  and  an  ordinary  one  £400)  would  doubtless 
take  the  place  of  horses  and  carriages.  In  France  it  is  already  much 
used,  but  in  England,  where  the  roads  are  neither  so  broad  nor  so 
straight,  I  doubt  whether  they  will  become  popular  until  the  mechanism 
has  been  simplified  and  cheapened  very  considerably.  We  went  a 
round  of  the  Colonial  shows  of  the  popular  kind,  representing  March- 
and  setting  fire  to  African  villages,  and  French  generals  bombarding 
the  Madagascans.  Then  to  the  Petit  Palais  with  its  splendid  bric-a- 
brac,  and  alongside  it  the  Grand  Palais,  a  modern  monstrosity  forming 
together  a  caricature  of  the  nineteenth  century.  On  the  one  side  a  huge 
show  of  everything  hideous  the  century  has  produced ;  on  the  other, 
giving  its  eclectic  fancy  for  ages  gone  by. 

"  9//t  Sept. —  Paid  a  last  visit  to  the  Horse  Show,  where  we  have 
taken  four  medals  and  prizes,  1,000  francs,  800  francs,  600  francs,  and 
500  francs.  The  printed  list  calls  them  recompenses  it  being  not  even 
pretended  that  the  judging  is  according  to  merit,  the  medals  being 
awarded  to  the  exhibitors  rather  than  to  the  beasts.  As  a  rule  those 
who  sent  most  animals  got  most  prizes. 

"  io//t  Sept. —  Back  to  Newbuildings,  taking  Alexandre  with  me  for 
some  English  shooting.  He  is  a  nice  young  man,  extremely  well 
educated  and  full  of  ideas,  which  he  expresses  fluently  in  somewhat 
imperfect  English.  '  In  France,'  he  said  to-day,  talking  of  duels, 


372  Return  of  the  City  Volunteers  [1900 

'  when  men  quarrel  and  one  receives  a  gifle,  he  is  expected  to  beat  him- 
self/ 

"  22nd  Sept. —  Politically  much  has  happened  in  the  last  week. 
Kruger  has  abandoned  the  Transvaal,  and  the  Boer  army,  though  never 
yet  beaten  in  battle,  seems  to  have  broken  up  into  small  bands,  so  that 
our  Government  has  some  ground  for  saying  the  war  is  over.  On  this, 
Parliament  has  been  dissolved.  I  shall  take  no  part  whatever  in  the 
new  elections,  as  neither  political  party  has  the  slightest  claim  on  my 
sympathy.  It  is  difficult  to  say  between  Rosebery  and  Chamberlain 
which  would  be  the  more  dangerous  in  power. 

"  ist  Nov. —  I  left  home  on  Monday  for  Egypt,  this  being  Thursday. 
London,  when  I  passed  through,  was  in  an  absurd  uproar  on  account  of 
the  return  of  the  City  Volunteers  from  South  Africa.  People  have  be- 
come idiotic  over  this  war,  to  the  extent  that  they  really  think  something 
chivalrous  and  noble  has  been  achieved,  while  we  have  been  making  our- 
selves not  only  detested,  but  a  laughing-stock  the  whole  world  over.  I 
found  George  getting  ready  for  a  speech  he  is  to  make  at  Dover.  He 
talked  very  scornfully  of  Rosebery  and  the  Imperial  Radicals,  who  had 
dished  the  chances  of  their  party  by  supporting  the  war,  and  had  put  his 
own  party  in  power  for  another  fifteen  years.  '  There  will  be  a  reaction, 
of  course,  some  day,'  he  said,  '  but  they  won't  profit  by  it.  Rosebery  will 
have  to  join  us  altogether,  as  Burke  did  Pitt,  or  be  left  out  permanently 
in  the  cold.  He  talked  of  his  own  prospects  of  promotion,  which  he 
said  had  been  a  little  injured  by  his  candour  in  admitting  defects  in 
the  conduct  of  the  war,  though  he  had  saved  the  Government  by  the 
line  he  took  last  Spring.  '  But  it  does  not  matter,'  he  said,  '  politics 
are  a  long  game,  and  I  shall  not  lose  in  the  end  by  telling  the  truth.' 
As  it  was,  he  had  some  chance,  he  said,  of  being  shifted  to  Ireland,  and 
he  said  I  must  write  and  tell  him  what  I  thought  of  it  if  it  came  to  pass. 
I  said  the  Irish  remembered  he  was  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald's  great- 
grandson,  and  it  would  be  something  to  start  on,  but  would  not  carry 
him  far.  George's  political  hard  work  has  aged  him  and  he  is  much 
greyer  than  I  am,  though  only  thirty-seven.  Hampden,  who  expresses 
Chamberlain's  ideas  about  the  war,  said  to-day,  '  It  looks  as  if  the  only 
way  of  ending  it  will  be  to  deport  all  the  Boer  women  and  hang  all  the 
Boer  men.  Roberts  will  come  home  and  leave  Kitchener  behind  him 
to  do  the  butcher  work.'  He  argued  quite  seriously  that  this  was  not 
only  necessary  but  implied  nothing  disgraceful  to  us  as  a  nation,  yet 
Hampden  was  a  Gladstonian  Radical  M.P.  of  the  most  advanced  non- 
intervention type  twenty  years  ago,  and  is  now  a  respected  Liberal 
nobleman  and  ex-Governor  of  a  Colony. 

"6th  Nov. —  On  board  the  P.  and  O.  Valetta.  Among  the  pas- 
sengers is  a  Mr.  Seton  Karr,  a  lion  shooter,  who  showed  me  photographs 
of  his  victims  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  These  amateur  killers  for 


1900]  The  Browning  Letters  373 

killing's  sake,  who  compass  the  four  continents  of  the  earth  at  vast 
labour  and  expense  only  to  destroy,  are  a  pitiful  feature  of  the  age  we 
live  in.  What  have  the  lions  and  elephants  in  Africa  done  to  Seton 
Karr  that  he  should  travel  20,000  miles,  and  spend  a  fortune  to  ex- 
tinguish their  race  ?  Men  of  his  stamp,  though  he  seems  a  very  worthy 
man,  need  to  be  put  under  restraint,  far  more  than  half  the  lunatics  in 
our  asylums.  They  do  a  thousand  times  more  harm.  There  is  no  pre- 
tence with  him  of  science,  missionary  work,  or  Imperial  politics,  and 
in  so  far  he  is  respectably  sincere.  His  work  of  destruction  does  not 
injure  his  moral  nature,  but  he  is  a  dangerous  criminal  all  the  same,  and 
ought  to  be  straight-waistcoated.  I  see  that  my  letter  to  the  '  Times ' 
of  last  winter  has  had  the  effect  of  causing  regulations  to  be  issued  in 
Egypt  which,  if  carried  out,  will  do  something  towards  saving  the  small 
wild  birds  there  from  extinction  at  the  hand  of  European  gunners.  If 
this  succeeds,  the  British  occupation  will  have  done  something  to  justify 
itself  in  the  eye  of  whatever  force  rules  the  world. 

"  I  have  been  reading  Mrs.  Browning's  letters.  They  are  interesting 
in  many  ways,  but  on  the  whole  poor  literature,  lacking,  as  they  do,  all 
wit.  They  are  gossiping,  too,  in  not  the  best  sense,  and  commonplace, 
far  inferior  to  her  poems,  for  which  I  have  the  highest  admiration. 
There  is  nothing  in  them  which  makes  one  love  the  writer,  and  very 
few  of  them  would  be  worth  preserving  if  not  written  by  so  famous  a 
poet.  Browning  stands  out  well  in  the  volume,  and  the  few  scraps  that 
are  given  of  his  writing  show  the  superiority  of  the  man,  as  an  intel- 
lectual power,  over  his  wife.  Her  enthusiasms  are  poor  stuff  in  prose. 
There  are  a  few  meagre  allusions  in  them  to  Robert  Lytton,  and  one, 
a  pretty  one,  to  Anne,  but  the  whole  series  written  in  Italy  is  infected 
with  the  sentimental  vulgarity  of  the  Anglo-American  colony,  which 
had  its  headquarters  in  Storey's  rooms  in  the  Palazzo  Barberini,  and 
which  so  nauseated  me  thirty  and  more  years  ago  at  Rome.  Browning 
himself  was  not  exempt  from  it,  though  this  does  not  appear  in  the 
volume,  for  I  remember  him  in  his  later  years,  a  gossipy  diner-out  in 
London  and  teller  of  second-rate  funny  stories.  He  did  not  on  these 
occasions  show  to  advantage,  though  beyond  question  he  was  a  thinker 
of  a  very  high  order,  the  most  intellectual  poet  we  have  perhaps  ever 
had. 

"  Another  volume  I  have  skimmed  is  Watts  Dunton's  absurd  ro- 
mance, '  Aylwin,'  a  thing  of  the  lowest  order  of  childish  melodrama. 
Kipling's  '  Stalky '  is  the  third  volume.  Here,  at  least,  we  have  vigour 
and  wit,  though  it  is  brutal  in  its  realism  and  displays  the  seamy  side 
of  our  British  schoolboy  life  without  mercy.  It  needed  courage  to 
print  it.  Kitchener,  I  fancy,  has  served  in  some  sort  as  his  model. 
Lastly,  I  have  read  Tourgueneff's  '  Smoke,'  which  is  excellent. 

"  jth  Nov. —  A  day  of  great  enjoyment.     We  landed  at  Alexandria 


374  Beauty  of  the  Delta  [1900 

and  came  on  by  special  train  to  Cairo,  arriving  at  sunset,  a  light  wind 
blowing  from  the  north,  which  puts  one  in  the  gayest  of  spirits.  There 
are  few  things  more  beautiful  than  the  Delta  at  this  time  of  year,  or 
where  one  sees  more  life  from  a  railway  carriage  window.  The  ap- 
pearance of  plenty  and  happiness  does  one  good  after  the  squalor  of 
Europe.  The  country  districts  are  still  quite  untouched  by  our  Western 
ugliness.  On  the  whole  journey  from  Alexandria  I  did  not  see  a 
European  or  a  European  dress,  yet  the  fields  were  full  of  people,  with 
their  buffaloes  and  donkeys  and  camels  crowding  the  country  roads, 
men,  women,  and  children  gathering  cotton  in  manifest  enjoyment  of 
their  lives.  How  different  from  our  own  agricultural  England,  where 
one  may  travel  for  miles  without  seeing  a  living  being  and  where  all 
labour  is  done  silently,  except  at  hay  and  harvest  times.  The  splendid 
wealth,  too,  of  the  crops,  especially  the  maize,  delights  one.  Then  there 
are  the  birds,  I  counted  nine  kingfishers,  some  blue,  some  pied,  and  as 
many  hoopoes,  besides  numbers  of  spur-winged  plovers,  which  are  far 
more  brilliant  than  our  English  ones,  and  kestrels,  kites,  hen  harriers 
and  other  large  birds,  to  say  nothing  of  the  flocks  of  smaller  ones.  I 
was  met  by  my  mare  and  Mutlak  at  the  station,  and  rode  through  the 
moonlit  garden,  which  was  alive  with  cicalas  and  so  enjoyed  its  whole 
beauty.  Then,  after  a  drink  of  fresh  milk  with  Mutlak  and  a  cup  of  his 
scented  coffee,  we  got  on  our  mares  again,  and  rode  out  into  the  desert. 
It  was  as  light  as  day  with  the  full  moon,  and  we  were  able  to  canter 
our  mares  with  their  unshod  feet  noiselessly  on  for  some  miles  till  we 
came  in  hearing  of  dogs  barking,  which  showed  us  where  Suliman's 
tent  was.  It  was  set  behind  a  little  hillock  surrounded  by  sheep  and 
camels,  and  we  had  some  difficulty  in  waking  them,  but  A'ida  (his  fav- 
ourite wife)  heard  us,  and  looked  out  and  then  Suliman.  Here,  too, 
seemed  an  abode  of  happiness  as  good  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  world. 
It  was  eleven  before  we  got  back  to  Sheykh  Obeyd,  and  we  must  have 
ridden  ten  miles. 

"  There  are  three  bits  of  news.  Aared  has  revolted  from  Ibn  Rashid 
in  Nejd ;  the  Sultan  is  building  a  railway  from  Damascus  to  Medina, 
and  a  French  company  has  bought  up  a  tract  of  land  beyond  Kafr 
Jamus  to  build  a  new  town  near  us  like  Helwan,  Heaven  forbid !  There 
are  three  fox  earths  in  our  stable  yard,  and  I  heard  the  jackals  cry  out- 
side my  window  between  one  and  two. 

"  gth  Nov. —  Mohammed  Abdu  called  to-day.  He  has  seen  the 
Khedive,  who  came  back  from  England  highly  pleased  with  the  civility 
shown  him  by  the  Queen,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  Government, 
but  as  I  had  told  him  would  be  the  case,  there  had  been  no  talk  of 
Egyptian  politics,  though  those  at  Constantinople  had  been  mentioned. 
He  sent  me  messages  of  thanks  through  Abdu,  and  said  he  had  in- 
tended going  to  Crabbet  according  to  my  invitation,  if  his  illness  had 


1900]  Death  of  Oscar  Wilde  375 

not  prevented  him.  Mohammed  Abdu  praised  him  for  his  power  of 
making  himself  agreeable  when  he  chose,  as  he  had  done  in  England,  but 
said  he  had  been  most  indiscreet  afterwards,  having  told  everything  that 
had  happened  there  to  the  editor  of  the  '  Mokattam,'  who  had  straight- 
way published  it. 

"  George,  according  to  a  telegram,  has  got  the  Chief  Secretaryship 
of  Ireland.  I  am  glad  of  it  for  him  as  a  step  in  his  ambition,  but  it  is 
a  thankless  task,  if  he  thinks  to  reconcile  Ireland  to  English  rule." 

During  the  rest  of  the  month  my  diary  is  mostly  filled  with  an  account 
of  explorations  made  in  the  eastern  desert,  interesting  in  themselves, 
but  not  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  here  transcribed.  We  were  back 
at  Sheykh  Obeyd  the  first  week  of  the  month. 

"  loth  Dec. —  Oscar  Wilde  is  reported  dead.  He  was  without  ex- 
ception the  most  brilliant  talker  I  have  ever  come  across,  the  most 
ready,  the  most  witty,  the  most  audacious.  Nobody  could  pretend  to 
outshine  him,  or  even  to  shine  at  all  in  his  company.  Something  of  his 
wit  is  reflected  in  his  plays,  but  very  little.  The  fine  society  of  London 
and  especially  the  '  Souls '  ran  after  him  because  they  knew  he  could 
always  amuse  them,  and  the  pretty  women  allowed  him  great  familiari- 
ties, though  there  was  no  question  of  love-making.  Physically,  he  was 
repellant,  though  with  a  certain  sort  of  fat  good  looks.  There  was  a 
kind  of  freckled  coarseness  in  his  colouring  I  have  seen  at  times  in 
other  Irishmen.  I  was  never  intimate  with  him,  though  on  superficially 
cordial  terms  when  we  met.  He  had  been  two  or  three  times  at  our 
Crabbet  parties  and  was  a  member  of  our  Club,  but  only  attended  one 
regular  meeting.  The  last  time  I  saw  him  was  at  that  brilliant  luncheon 
party  at  Asquith's  in  Upper  Grosvenor  Street  which  I  have  already 
described.  His  poetry,  though  nothing  very  wonderful,  was  good,  es- 
pecially his  '  Ballad  of  Reading  Gaol,'  as  was  also  a  protest  he  wrote 
on  leaving  prison  against  prison  treatment,  and  if  he  had  then  begun  a 
decent  life  people  would  have  forgiven  him,  but  he  returned  to  Paris 
and  to  his  dog's  vomit  and  this  is  the  end.  I  see  it  said  in  the  papers 
that  he  was  received  into  the  Catholic  Church  on  his  deathbed,  a  strange 
ending,  and  yet  not  strange! 

"  22nd  Dec. —  The  old  century  is  very  nearly  out,  and  leaves  the 
world  in  a  pretty  pass,  and  the  British  Empire  is  playing  the  devil  in 
it  as  never  an  empire  before  on  so  large  a  scale.  We  may  live  to  see 
its  fall.  All  the  nations  of  Europe  are  making  the  same  hell  upon  earth 
in  China,  massacring  and  pillaging  and  raping  in  the  captured  cities  as 
outrageously  as  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Emperor  of  Germany  gives 
the  word  for  slaughter  and  the  Pope  looks  on  and  approves.  In  South 
Africa  our  troops  are  burning  farms  under  Kitchener's  command,  and 
the  Queen  and  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  the  bench  of  bishops 
thank  God  publicly  and  vote  money  for  the  work.  The  Americans  are 


3/6  Shame  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  [1900 

spending  fifty  millions  a  year  on  slaughtering  the  Filipinos;  the  King 
of  the  Belgians  has  invested  his  whole  fortune  on  the  Congo,  where  he 
is  brutalizing  the  negroes  to  fill  his  pockets.  The  French  and  Italians 
for  the  moment  are  playing  a  less  prominent  part  in  the  slaughter,  but 
their  inactivity  grieves  them.  The  whole  white  race  is  revelling  openly 
in  violence,  as  though  it  had  never  pretended  to  be  Christian.  God's 
equal  curse  be  on  them  all !  So  ends  the  famous  nineteenth  century  into 
which  we  were  so  proud  to  have  been  born. 

"  2$th  Dec. —  Christmas  Day.  I  have  embodied  some  part  of  my 
feeling  in  a  letter  to  the  '  Times,'  if  they  will  print  it  ('  The  Shame  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century').  The  Boers  have  shown  themselves  alive 
within  the  last  week  and  have  won  two  battles,  capturing  over  500  men, 
and  are  now  in  full  march  forward  into  Cape  Colony.  The  railroads 
are  cut  behind  them  and  Kitchener  seems  pretty  well  bewildered. 
There  is  something  like  a  panic  in  London  for  the  last  week  of  the  old 
century. 

My  old  friend  and  neighbour  here,  Sheykh  Hassan  Abu  Tawil,  at 
last  is  dead.  I  went  to  see  him  four  days  ago  and  found  him  lying 
speechless  with  his  eyes  closed,  in  the  little  closet  he  used  as  his  sleeping 
room.  He  looked  the  picture  of  frail,  worn-out  humanity,  with  a  Job- 
like  Eastern  patience  on  his  fine  old  countenance,  over  which  the  flies 
were  crawling  as  they  doubtless  crawled  in  his  childhood  in  the  tent 
where  he  was  born.  He  died  last  night  at  midnight,  and  we  heard  the 
women  wailing  a  short  mile  away  at  daybreak,  while  we  were  breakfast- 
ing on  the  roof.  Now  they  have  buried  him,  walking  in  beautiful  pro- 
cession, men  and  women,  past  our  gates  to  his  grave  in  the  desert. 
These  country  funerals  are  touching  things,  with  the  flags  flying  and 
the  chaunting  and  the  wailing,  dignified,  and  with  something  in  them 
of  triumph  as  well  as  grief,  which  mitigates  the  ugliness  of  death.  Old 
Sheykh  Hassan  has  gone  to  his  grave,  full  of  years,  the  last  of  the  old- 
world  Arab  Sheykhs  of  Lower  Egypt.  His  tribe,  the  Aiaide,  were  all 
tent-dwellers  when  he  was  young,  a  wicked,  turbulent  lot,  whom  he 
has  controlled  with  a  mild  humanity  much  to  his  credit.  With  me  he 
has  always  been  on  more  than  friendly,  on  affectionate  terms,  and  I 
grieve  for  him  as  sincerely  as  his  own  people.  It  is  a  link  broken  for 
me  with  a  pleasant  past  which  will  not  be  joined  again,  for  the  fashion 
of  the  old  world  passeth  fast  away  at  Sheykh  Obeyd  and  we  shall  soon 
be  engulfed  in  the  town. 

"  $ist  Dec. —  I  bid  good-bye  to  the  old  century,  may  it  rest  in  peace 
as  it  has  lived  in  war.  Of  the  new  century  I  prophesy  nothing  except 
that  it  will  see  the  decline  of  the  British  Empire.  Other  worse  Em- 
pires will  rise  perhaps  in  its  place,  but  I  shall  not  live  to  see  the  day. 
It  all  seems  a  very  little  matter  here  in  Egypt,  with  the  Pyramids  watch- 


1900]  Poor  Wicked  Century,  Farewell!  377 

ing  us  as  they  watched  Joseph,  when,  as  a  young  man  four  thousand 
years  ago,  perhaps  in  this  very  garden,  he  walked  and  gazed  at  the 
sunset  behind  them,  wondering  about  the  future  just  as  I  did  this  even- 
ing. And  so,  poor  wicked  nineteenth  century,  farewell! 


END  OF   PART    I 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  I 

My  Paris  Diary  of  1870 

The  fragment  of  Diary  here  printed  was  begun  by  me  at  Paris  in  the 
early  summer  of  1870,  a  few  weeks  only  before  the  rupture  of  relations 
between  France  and  Prussia.  I  already  knew  Paris  well,  having  been  a 
member  of  the  British  Embassy  there  in  Lord  Cowley's  time,  and  I  had 
remained  in  pleasant  personal  relations  with  my  successors  on  the  Em- 
bassy staff,  and  so  found  myself  in  close  touch  with  all  that  was  going  on 
diplomatically.  There  were  few  days  when  I  did  not  see  one  or  other  of 
my  Embassy  friends.  I  had  only  just  left  the  diplomatic  service,  and  now 
on  my  marriage  I  had  come  to  Paris  with  my  wife,  meaning  to  make  our 
temporary  home  there,  before  settling  down  finally  to  country  life  in 
Sussex.  I  had  a  romantic  feeling  about  the  great  capital  of  the  world's 
pleasure  and  was  deeply  interested  in  all  that  concerned  France  when  the 
war  broke  out,  and  was  fired  with  a  corresponding  sympathy  when  it  re- 
sulted in  her  unlocked  for  overthrow. 

Of  Germany,  too,  her  adversary,  I  had  had  experience.  Among  the 
many  posts  I  had  filled  as  attache  and  secretary  I  had  been  twice  at  Frank- 
fort, a  place  at  that  time  of  first  diplomatic  importance  as  capital  of  the 
Germanic  Confederation  and  seat  of  the  Diet,  and  had  made  there  my 
apprenticeship  in  Central  European  politics.  When  I  was  first  appointed 
to  Frankfort  in  1860,  Bismarck,  though  already  noticed  as  leader  of  the 
Junker  party  at  Berlin,  was  still  at  the  outset  of  his  political  career.  The 
old  King  Frederick  William  was  still  King  of  Prussia,  and  Bismarck  was 
not  much  in  his  good  graces.  His  place  at  Frankfort  had  just  been  taken 
by  his  rival,  Count  d'Usedom,  who  was  in  better  favour  at  Court.  Use- 
dom  was  a  highly  intellectual  man,  a  leading  member  of  the  Liberal  party 
in  Prussia,  and  his  sympathies  were  with  the  movement  for  a  United  Ger- 
many, then  a  Liberal  movement  having  for  its  acknowledged  head  the 
Duke  of  Saxe  Coburg,  elder  brother  of  our  English  Prince  Consort,  nor 
was  it  till  Frederick  William's  death  that  Bismarck's  power  with  the  Ho- 
henzollerns  found  its  opportunity. 

With  Usedom  I  was  intimate,  spending  most  of  my  time  at  the  Prussian 
Legation,  where  I  held  in  some  sort  the  position  of  child  of  the  house 
through  the  favour  of  Madame  d'Usedom,  the  good-natured  Scotchwoman 
who  figures  in  Bismarck's  memoirs  under  the  name  of  Olympia  as  his 
bete  noire,  the  subject  of  his  unsparing  jests.  Both  she  and  Usedom  were 
too  outspoken  to  please  the  Bismarckian  ideas  of  diplomacy;  and  in  their 
society,  though  I  took  little  interest  as  yet  in  the  great  world's  politics, 
I  learned  much  that  I  have  not  forgotten  of  Berlin  policy  and  of  the 
hopes  and  fears  of  German  patriotism  in  which  the  Hohenzollerns  under 

38i 


382  Appendix  I 

the  old  King  had  as  yet  refused  to  play  a  part.  I  remember  a  visit  paid 
to  Frankfort  by  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  afterwards  Emperor  Wil- 
liam I,  and  his  accession  a  little  later  to  the  Prussian  throne,  which  set 
Bismarck  securely  in  the  saddle  and  began  that  intrigue  which  resulted  in 
the  war  with  Denmark  over  Sleswig  Holstein,  as  to  which  Usedom  was 
daily  eloquent. 

I  have  dreamlike  memories,  too,  of  many  hours  —  some  pleasant,  some 
wearisome  —  spent  in  attendance  on  the  Princes  and  Princesses  of  the 
Royal  and  Electoral  Houses  to  whom  we  at  the  English  Legation  were 
accredited,  including  Princess  Alice  of  Hesse  Darmstadt,  our  Queen  Vic- 
toria's daughter,  and  a  vast  number  of  cousinly  allied  royalties  assembled 
one  summer  at  the  family  chateau  of  Rumpenheim,  where  I  had  the  priv- 
ilege of  paying  an  early  court  to  our  future  Queen  Alexandra  while  she 
was  still  a  girl  of  seventeen,  and  her  sister,  afterwards  Empress  of  Russia, 
pretty  but  plainly  dressed  maidens  of  no  acknowledged  importance,  though 
we  at  the  Legation  had  been  secretly  apprised  of  the  intended  marriage 
of  the  elder  with  our  Prince  of  Wales. 

All  these  incidents  were  unconscious  elements  in  my  diplomatic  educa- 
tion. My  thoughts,  however,  at  the  time  ran  more  on  poetry  than  politics, 
and  what  interest  I  took  in  German  thought  lay  rather  in  the  direction 
of  science  which  was  beginning  to  perplex  me,  for  Darwin's  "Origin  of 
Species"  had  only  just  been  published. 

My  second  appointment  in  Frankfort  found  the  Bismarckian  policy  in 
full  swing.  After  three  years'  absence  at  other  posts  —  Madrid,  Paris, 
and  Lisbon  —  I  had  returned  in  1866  in  time  to  witness  the  great  duel  in 
the  Diet  between  Prussia  and  Austria  shortly  after  to  be  decided  at  Sa- 
dowa,  which  displayed  Bismarck  as  the  leading  force  of  his  generation. 

Of  the  great  man  himself  I  have  but  a  single  personal  recollection,  that 
of  a  couple  of  hours  spent  in  his  society  at  tea  alone  with  Lady  Malet. 
He  was  then  still  an  object  of  dislike  and  even  ridicule  at  Frankfort,  but 
already  recognized  by  Lady  Malet,  a  very  clever  woman,  to  whom  he  had 
paid  a  certain  court  while  at  the  Frankfort  Legation,  and  who  already 
saw  in  him  the  man  of  genius  he  was  soon  to  show  himself.  My  memory 
of  him  is  of  a  tall,  distinguished  personage,  still  slight  in  figure,  who,  hav- 
ing been  told  about  me  by  our  hostess  favourably  as  having  some  faculty 
of  verse,  talked  pleasantly  and  well  on  literature  and  science  in  excellent 
English  for  a  couple  of  hours,  affecting  a  certain  Anglomania,  where  he 
touched  on  politics.  He  showed  himself  thus  at  his  best,  and  left  me 
with  a  feeling  of  the  heroic  such  as  a  young  man  gives  to  one  already 
beginning  to  be  famous  and  who  had  been  kind  to  him. 

All  this,  however,  had  failed  to  give  me  when  I  left  Frankfort  after 
Sadowa  any  enthusiasm  for  Germany,  and  when  the  war  of  1870  broke 
out  I  was  strongly  anti-Prussian.  My  connection  with  the  Paris  Embassy 
in  the  days  of  the  Napoleonic  glory  had  made  me  a  partisan  of  France, 
and  I  had  come  to  look  upon  Germany  as  intellectually  the  home  of  bar- 
barism given  up  to  the  grosser  forms  of  social  life  and  clumsy  in  its  poli- 
tics as  in  all  else. 

With  these  few  words  I  leave  my  diary  to  tell  its  own  story. 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  383 

"Paris,  2jth  May,  1870. —  I  have  taken  the  first  floor  of  No.  204,  Rue 
de  Rivoli,  at  8,000  francs  rent.  My  proprietor  is  M.  Desfontaines,  one  of 
Louis  Philippe's  councillors.  He  is  an  old  man  who  lives  at  Noissy,  and 
his  house  is  managed  by  his  concierge,  whom  we  call  the  -faux  bon  homme. 
He  sits  with  his  wife  all  day  under  the  arcade,  and  the  people  of  the 
quarter  dislike  him  because  he  has  made  100,000  francs.  Every  Monday 
morning  he  brings  us  from  the  country  a  country  bunch  of  flowers. 

"  To-day  I  went  with  my  cousin  Francis  Currie  to  the  other  side  of  the 
Seine  for  furniture.  We  went  to  one  Recapet's,  a  bric-a-brac  dealer,  and 
having  to  ask  the  way  I  inquired  of  a  shopwoman  in  the  faubourg,  a 
dealer  in  religious  prints,  the  road  to  the  '  Passage  Marie.'  '  The  Passage 
S"  Marie,'  she  answered,  correcting  me.  There  is  still  religion  in  France ! 
Yesterday  Francis  Currie  saw  a  dead  man  fished  out  of  the  river  near  the 
Pont  Royal.  A  woman  in  the  crowd  asked  what  it  was  all  about.  '  A 
naked  man/  my  cousin  answered.  'If  it  is  only  that ! '  said  the  woman. 
I  afterwards  drove  with  my  wife  to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  and  back 
through  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine.  Coming  home  we  saw  the  carriages 
of  '  Le  Singe '  as  they  call  their  Sovereign. 

"  y>th  May. — We  drove  down  on  Saturday  to  Chantilly  by  the  old 
Royal  Road  passing  through  St.  Denis  and  Luzarches.  There  are  some 
fine  views  on  the  way,  but  the  road  is  still  paved  nearly  the  whole  distance. 
In  the  Forest  we  noticed  two  large  oaks  on  the  boundary  between  Oise 
and  Seine.  These  are  the  only  trees  more  than  twenty  [sic]  years  old. 
The  races  on  Sunday  were  pleasant  and  the  weather  fine.  A  horse  called 
Bigarreau  won  the  principal  stakes. 

"  2nd  June. —  To  Fontainebleau  to  play  tennis.  Our  party  was  Frank 
Lascelles  and  his  wife,  Henry  Wodehouse  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Ricardo. 
Lascelles  and  I  played  from  two  till  half-past  six.  The  paumier,  Garcin, 
is  eighty-three  years  old.  In  his  time  he  has  played  tennis  with  Welling- 
ton and  others  of  the  Waterloo  heroes.  '  Napoleon  Bonaparte,'  he  told  us, 
'  played  in  the  tennis  court  at  Fontainebleau,  but  did  not  show  much  apti- 
tude. II  n'avait  pas  meme  des  dispositions.  Quant  a  Wellington,  il  ne 
faisait  que  s'y  amuser,  il  venait  de  gagner  la  bataille  de  Waterloo.'  (The 
old  man  hobbled  into  the  court  to  play  us  a  chouette,  supported  by  a 
granddaughter,  who  picked  up  and  handed  him  the  balls.  He  pretended 
at  first  not  to  be  able  to  send  the  ball  over  the  net,  but  with  five  francs 
on  the  set  he  soon  recovered  his  skill  and  won  his  money.  Anne  made 
an  excellent  drawing  of  the  court  while  we  were  playing.) 

"  yd  June. —  Two  great  fires  have  taken  place,  the  one  at  Fontaine- 
bleau, which  destroyed  a  large  part  of  the  Forest,  the  other  at  Constanti- 
nople, a  thousand  houses  burnt  at  Pera,  including  the  English  Embassy. 

"  People  in  Paris  seem  to  be  becoming  aware  how  grossly  they  have 
been  cajoled  in  the  matter  of  Liberal  reform.  I  myself  thought  three 
months  ago  that  it  was  sincere,  and  I  was  only  surprised  that  so  long- 
sighted a  policy  should  have  been  adopted  by  the  Bonapartes,  who  have 
always  held  by  small  expedients.  For  the  future  of  the  dynasty  there 
could  have  been  no  greater  folly  than  a  sham  conversion  to  constitutional- 
ism and  a  repetition  of  the  old  trick  of  the  plebiscite.  Another  such  vie- 


Appendix  I 

tory  and  the  dynasty  is  lost.  They  complain  already  that  Ollivier  is  noth- 
ing else  than  Rouere  over  again,  and  that  personal  government  is  precisely 
what  it  was  last  year.  I  care  nothing  for  all  this,  not  being  one  of  the 
Singe's  subjects. 

"  Sth  June. —  We  dined  last  night  at  the  British  Embassy,  thirty  covers. 
Amongst  the  guests  were  some  of  the  new  French  Ministry  —  Grammont, 
Mege,  Richard,  also  Monsaud,  Under  Secretary  at  the  Affaires  Etrangeres. 
Lord  Lyons  keeps  great  state  at  the  Embassy,  with  Sheffield  managing 
the  household,  and  Edward  Malet  for  Private  Secretary.  They  all  three 
go  out  driving  in  a  barouche  every  afternoon  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne, 
with  a  dog  named  Toby  on  the  fourth  seat.  The  Parisians  mock  at  it 
calling  Malet  '  le  petit  brun,'  and  Sheffield  '  le  petit  blond.'  The  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  Montmorency  were  at  the  dinner.  He  is  the  hero  of  a 
rather  mean  adventure.  Being  by  birth  a  Perigord,  he  solicited  through 
his  wife,  who  was  an  Aguado  and  partly  Spanish,  one  of  Empress  Eu- 
genie's set,  a  grant  of  the  Duchy  of  Montmorency,  the  direct  line  of  the 
Dues  de  Montmorency  having  failed,  though  there  were  still  collaterals. 
One  of  these,  the  Comte  de  Montmorency,  who  now  represents  the  family, 
scratched  out  the  new  Duke's  arms  from  the  panel  of  his  carriage  the 
first  time  he  drove  up  in  it  to  the  Jockey  Club.  It  led  to  a  duel  in  which 
the  Comte  was  slightly  wounded,  and  the  Club,  indignant  at  the  affair, 
expelled  the  Duke  from  their  house.  On  this  the  Duke  appealed  to  the 
Court,  the  Empress  happening  to  be  Regent  at  the  time,  and  the  police 
received  orders  to  close  the  doors  of  the  Jockey  Club  if  they  persisted 
in  the  expulsion.  The  Club  succumbed,  and  so  the  matter  ended.  [I  was 
constantly  in  and  out  of  the  Chancery  at  our  Embassy  during  all  this  time, 
having  through  my  former  official  connection  with  the  Embassy  still  many 
friends  there,  Lascelles,  Malet,  Saumarez,  Claremont,  and  Atlee,  thus  I 
heard  the  news  pretty  regularly  as  the  Embassy  heard  it.] 

"  The  '  Figaro '  has  published  a  charge.  Villemessent,  the  editor,  begins 
by  announcing  that  he  has  sold  his  paper  to  the  Irreconcilables,  and  articles 
and  letters  follow,  signed  by  the  chiefs  of  the  revolution.  The  best  is  a 
piece  in  verse,  purporting  to  be  by  Victor  Hugo  in  which  his  style  is  well 
imitated.  Half  the  town  has  been  taken  in  by  the  hoax. 

"nth  June. —  There  is  news  from  Lisbon  of  disturbances,  Saldanha 
being  the  hero  of  these.  I  used  to  see  this  curious  old  Field  Marshal 
very  frequently  during  the  summer  I  spent  at  Cintra  in  1865.  He  was  a 
poseur  of  the  first  water,  and  nature  had  given  him  a  head  and  figure 
exactly  suited  to  the  part  of  ancien  militaire,  which  he  had  been  playing 
ever  since  the  day  of  the  Peninsular  War.  He  is  now  eighty-five.  Twenty 
years  ago  he  made  a  revolution  in  Portugal  very  like  the  present  one.  He 
got  a  few  regiments  together,  and  when  the  King  marched  out  against 
him  with  the  rest  of  the  Portuguese  army  these  at  once  joined  the  Marshal, 
and  the  King  had  to  gallop  back  alone  with  his  A.D.C.'s  to  Lisbon. 
Saldanha  had  no  political  principles,  but  being  a  restless,  vain  old  man, 
could  not  bear  to  be  forgotten.  I  saw  him  again  at  Rome  in  1867,  on 
his  way  in  uniform  to  the  Jesuit  church  in  Easter  week,  his  whole  coat, 
front  and  back,  a  mass  of  stars  and  orders.  He  is  the  most  completely 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  385 

decorated  personage  in  Europe.  Also  he  has  the  pretension  of  universal 
knowledge,  and  has  written  a  book  or  pamphlet  on  every  possible  subject 
from  Pisciculture  to  the  Immaculate  Conception.  At  Cintra  he  had  a 
garden  of  acclimatisation.  His  wife,  the  widow  of  a  British  navy  surgeon, 
was  a  worthy  Englishwoman  on  whom  he  imposed  absolute  silence  in 
society  so  as  to  conceal  her  defects  of  education. 

"  Another  revolution  is  an  absurd  one  at  Monaco,  where  the  Prince 
heritier,  who  married  Lady  Mary  Hamilton  last  spring,  has  slapped  his 
wife's  face,  and  asks  for  a  divorce.  The  late  Duke  of  Hamilton,  hef 
father,  so  well  known  here  at  Paris  as  the  Empress's  cousin  and  intimate 
friend,  with  many  faults  of  conduct,  was  a  grand  seigneur.  His  worst 
folly  was  his  marriage  with  a  Baden  Princess  who  despised  his  Scotch 
nobility  and  gave  him  a  heavy  set  of  German  heirs.  He  met  his  death 
by  slipping  down  the  narrow  stairs  of  the  Maison  Doree  where  he  had 
been  supping  with  Henry  Howard  and  a  couple  of  women  after  an  opera 
ball.  The  Empress  learning  what  had  happened  hurried  to  his  rooms  and 
was  with  him  till  he  died. 

"  Dejazet  is  retiring  from  the  stage  on  which  she  has  been  popular  for 
nearly  seventy  years,  having  begun  as  an  infant  prodigy  at  the  age  of  five. 

"  Yet  another  scandal  has  been  one  in  the  Spanish  Royal  Family.  The 
ex-King's  pension  has  been  left  unpaid,  and  he  sues  the  ex-Queen  Ysabel 
for  arrears. 

"  I  have  bought  a  pair  of  horses  of  Mrs.  Lyne  Stevens  for  4,000  francs. 
She  was  on  the  stage,  and  her  husband  dying  left  her  an  immense  fortune 
which  Claremont,  our  military  attache  here,  manages  for  her  at  a  salary 
of  £1,000  a  year. 

"  26th  June. —  The  Orleans  princes  have  addressed  a  letter  to  the  French 
Parliament  demanding  their  readmission  into  France.  Courbet,  the  painter, 
has  refused  the  legion  of  honour.  The  Paris  papers  consider  the  refusal 
a  miracle  of  virtue. 

"  2&th  June. —  The  claim  of  the  Orleans  princes  has  been  refused 
through  fear,  probably,  that  they  should  go  on  to  demand  their  property  in 
France  confiscated  by  the  Republic.  The  Chantilly  Estate  is  said  to  be 
worth  280,000,000  francs.  Among  the  wills  and  bequests  I  see  that  this 
Estate,  bought  of  the  Due  de  Nemours,  has  just  been  left  by  Sir  Edmund 
Antrobus  to  his  son,  held  I  suppose  fictitiously  for  the  Orleans  family. 

"  Yesterday  morning  died  Lord  Clarendon,  our  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs.  I  met  him  four  years  ago  when  I  was  staying  with  the  Usedoms 
in  the  Villa  Capponi  at  Florence,  a  sleek  white  little  old  man,  with  a 
pulse,  it  was  said  for  some  years  at  forty,  and  an  agreeable  old-fashioned 
manner.  His  brother,  Charles  Villiers,  I  met  several  times  at  the  Malet's 
at  Frankfort  in  1860,  a  very  brilliant  talker,  who  was  kind  to  me,  and 
interested  in  my  young  man's  chatter.  Their  mother  was  the  Mrs. 
Villiers  of  the  Byron  correspondence. 

"  I st  July. —  To  Versailles  to  see  whether  the  historic  tennis  court  there 
was  in  a  fit  state  for  play.  A  nice  Htle  girl  in  charge  of  the  place  told  us 
that  an  order  had  just  come  from  the  Ministry  for  its  restoration.  The 
court  is  miserably  out  of  repair,  the  floor  chipped,  and  the  plaster  falling 


386  Appendix  I 

from  the  walls,  the  brass  plate  commemorating  the  oath  of  1789  was  taken 
down  by  Dalmand  the  paumier  some  years  ago,  and  remise  d,  neuf.  The 
court  had  not  been  used  for  four  years,  and  there  are  but  a  few  rotten 
old  balls  to  play  with,  but  the  court  was  played  in  this  summer. 

"  Queen  Ysabel  has  signed  her  abdication  publicly  of  the  Crown  of 
Spain,  and  the  Prince  of  Asturias,  her  son,  becomes  King  Alphonso  XII. 
On  the  same  day  a  rival  Prince  of  Asturias  was  born  to  Don  Carlos  at 
Geneva.  The  Pope  has  sent  his  blessing  to  them  both.  I  well  remember 
the  Court  of  Queen  Ysabel,  and  the  besa  nianos  ceremonies  in  which  the 
little  Prince  Alfonso  figured  with  his  parents,  set  in  a  tall  gilt  chair, 
having  his  hand  kissed  fast  asleep.  He  had  in  those  days  a  most  beautiful 
little  Andalusian  pony,  a  miniature  horse,  but  only  twelve  hands  high, 
with  silky  mane  and  tail  sweeping  the  grounds,  legs  fine  as  a  gazelle's. 
When  the  revolution  came  which  drove  the  Bourbons  from  Spain,  Prim 
gave  the  pony  to  his  son.  I  met  General  Prim  in  the  summer  of  1863  at 
the  baths  of  Panticosa,  a  pale,  ugly  little  man,  with  no  kind  of  distinction, 
suffering  from  an  internal  disease  which  gave  him  constant  pain,  half  his 
political  energy,  they  said,  was  caused  by  this.  General  Prim  was  the 
leader  then  of  the  Progresista  Party.  He  was  at  the  baths  for  his  health 
with  his  aide-de-camp,  General  Milans  del  Bosch." 

The  abdication  here  mentioned  of  the  exiled  Queen  of  Spain  was  the 
occasion  of  the  quarrel  between  France  and  Prussia  a  week  or  two  later, 
which  resulted  in  the  disastrous  war,  the  capitulation  of  Sedan  and  the 
overthrow  of  the  Napoleonic  dynasty.  I  was,  at  the  time  of  writing, 
strongly  anti-Bonapartist,  a  reader  of  the  "  Lanterne  "  and  other  journals 
of  that  type,  more  than  my  diary  shows.  In  this  I  shared  the  general 
view  of  the  Parisian  mob,  and  even  of  the  bourgeoisie  who  were  sick  of 
the  Empire.  The  gossip  of  the  Paris  streets  was  retailed  to  me  daily  by 
my  old  bonne  Julie,  who  had  a  curious  faculty  for  gathering  news  as  she 
was  constantly  wandering  about  the  streets  where  she  had  become  a  well- 
known  character  by  reason  of  her  kindness  to  birds  and  beasts,  and  suf- 
ferers of  all  kinds.  With  the  sergeants-de-ville  of  the  Tuileries  quarter 
she  was  a  favourite,  for  she  was  always  ready  to  help  in  cases  of  sickness, 
or  accident,  coming  within  their  province.  A  Bretonne  peasant  by  birth, 
(she  had  had  an  uncle  a  priest,  massacred  during  the  great  Revolution 
on  the  steps  of  the  altar,  while  he  was  celebrating  mass).  Her  political 
prepossessons  were  strongly  Orleanist,  as  became  one  who  had  been  in 
their  domestic  service,  for  she  had  been  housemaid  in  her  young  days 
under  Louis  Philippe  in  the  Chateau,  as  she  called  the  Tuileries,  and 
knew  every  room  in  it  from  cellar  to  garret.  Another  informant  of  the 
same  class  was  my  cousin,  Francis  Currie's  bonne  Julienne,  a  pendant  of 
my  Julie.  She  had  a  German  husband,  waiter  in  a  restaurant,  and  brought 
us  gossip  from  the  German  point  of  view,  also  an  amusing  woman.  To 
these  two  may  be  added  our  man-servant  Desire  who  appears  from  time 
to  time  in  the  diaries. 

''  4th  July. —  The  '  Constitutionel '  publishes  the  news  that  Prim  has 
offered  the  Crown  of  Spain  to  one  of  the  Hohenzollerns,  a  brother  of 
Prince  Charles  of  Roumania,  and  that  the  candidature  is  accepted.  On 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  387 

this  a  general  outcry  from  all  sides.  A  Hohenzollern,  it  is  said,  at  the 
Escurial  will  complete  the  wild  beast  show  of  Europe.  We  have  already 
seen  a  Bonaparte  at  Fontainebleau,  a  Savoy  at  Venice,  a  Hapsburg  in 
Mexico,  to-day  the  rage  is  for  German  Kings,  the  most  wonderful  phenom- 
enon of  the  age.  Yesterday  we  drove  to  St.  Germain  with  a  mixed  company 
of  Americans,  French,  Jews,  and  Brazilians,  to  dine  there  on  the  terrace. 
The  event  of  the  day  was  Grammont's  speech  in  the  Chambers.  He 
declared  that  if  the  candidature  of  Prince  Leopold  of  Hohenzollern  was 
not  withdrawn  '  France  would  know  how  to  act  without  hesitation  and 
without  weakness.'  This  being  considered  a  declaration  of  war  with 
Prussia  was  tumultuously  applauded  by  all  parties  in  the  House.  The 
move  is  considered  an  excellent  one  for  the  Bonapartists,  who  need  a 
show  of  energy  to  cover  their  humiliations  of  the  past  four  years,  for  the 
first  place  in  Europe  is  every  day  becoming  more  plainly  Prussian. 
Whether  the  Germans  are  beat  in  the  war,  or  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  I  shall 
feel  some  satisfaction.  St.  Germain  looked  lovely  as  it  always  does." 

Though  my  diary  does  not  record  it,  I  remember  well  the  excitement 
there  was  among  us  that  evening  at  the  news  which  had  been  brought  down 
by  Frank  Lascelles,  or  some  other  diplomatist  of  our  party,  and  how  in 
the  beautiful  summer's  night  we  walked  upon  the  terrace  after  dinner, 
and  looked  across  the  river  towards  Paris,  and  how  someone  suggested, 
though  we  none  of  us  had  much  misgiving  as  to  the  fortunate  issue  of  the 
war,  the  possible  trouble  there  might  be  for  the  fair  city  which  we  loved. 
Our  imagination  for  a  moment  encircled  it  with  a  girdle  of  armed  men, 
and  a  gulf  seemed  opened  suddenly  at  our  feet  of  unknown  adversity.  Yet, 
as  I  have  said,  none  of  us,  not  even  those  who  ought  to  have  known  it,  had 
a  suspicion  of  the  unreadiness  of  France  for  a  serious  campaign.  There 
had  been  a  comparative  lack  of  interest  in  the  Paris  newspapers  at  the 
first  announcement  of  the  Hohenzollern  candidature,  which  was  treated  by 
them  as  only  another  rebuff  for  the  Imperial  diplomacy,  and  it  was  not  till 
Grammont  made  his  valorous  speech,  and  after  him  Ollivier  that  a  cry, 
d  Berlin,  began  to  be  raised. 

"  8th  July.  — There  has  been  a  report  that  Prim  has  abandoned  his 
Hohenzollern,  but  this  is  not  true.  The  German  papers  affect  not  to  treat 
the  French  menace  as  serious.  At  Madrid  the  Cortes  are  to  assemble  for 
the  vote  on  the  2Oth.  If  the  present  candidature  is  not  withdrawn  before 
that  date  the  position  of  France  will  become  less  simple. 

"  To-night  I  start  for  Southampton  to  meet  my  brother  Francis,  leaving 
Anne  here.  He  is  returning  from  Australia  via  the  Cape  and  Madeira." 

[A  fortnight's  break  occurs  here  in  my  diary  caused  by  my  absence 
from  Paris.] 

"  2?th  July. —  I  have  been  more  than  a  fortnight  in  England,  and  my 
journal  has  been  interrupted,  but  I  will  recapitulate  the  events  which  have 
led  to  the  declaration  of  war.  In  answer  to  the  French  demand  of  a  with- 
drawal of  Prince  Leopold's  candidature  Prim  denied  the  right  of  France 
to  interfere.  At  first  all  previous  knowledge  of  the  candidature  was  denied 
in  Prussia,  but  it  soon  appeared  that  King  William  had  given  his  assent  to 
the  Prince's  acceptance.  But  on  the  matter  being  pressed  by  the  French 


388  Appendix  I 

Government  William  withdrew  his  consent,  not  as  King,  but  as  head  of  the 
Hohenzollerns,  saying  at  the  same  time  that  if  Spain  still  chose  to  elect 
the  Prince  he  would  not  as  King  of  Prussia  interfere.  Nevertheless 
France  insisted  on  a  formal  disavowal  of  the  plan  by  the  Prussian  Govern- 
ment. Things  being  in  this  position,  to  the  astonishment  of  all,  Prince 
Anthony,  Leopold's  father,  writes  to  the  Spanish  Government  withdrawing 
his  son's  candidature,  Leopold  himself  remaining  silent,  and  the  Prussian 
Government  professing  not  to  know  even  where  he  is.  In  France  Leopold 
is  thought  to  have  gone  incognito  to  Madrid,  as  his  brother  Charles  in  like 
circumstances  went  incognito  to  Roumania.  I  have  no  doubt  in  my  mind 
that  some  such  stroke  was  contemplated  by  Bismarck,  as  Usedom  has  often 
told  me  that  Prince  Charles'  expedition  was  sanctioned  by  the  Prussian 
Government,  and  that  it  was  Bismarck's  policy  to  raise  up  anti-French 
influences  in  every  corner  of  Europe,  in  Greece,  in  Italy,  and  in  the  Turkish 
Provinces.  In  England  it  was  very  generally  believed  that  Prince  Anthony 
had  settled  the  matter,  and  the  '  Times '  sang  a  Te  Deum  of  peace,  the 
stocks  rose  prodigiously  in  London,  and  two  days  after,  Sunday  the  i6th 
of  July,  as  I  was  sitting  in  the  balcony  after  dinner  in  Belgrave  Square 
(number  44,  my  cousin  Percy  Wyndham's  house),  I  heard  the  news 
hawkers  bawling  out,  '  Declaration  of  War.'  A  story  had  appeared  in  the 
'  Times '  that  morning,  relating  that  M.  Benedetti  the  French  Ambassador 
at  Berlin  had  accosted  King  William  contrary  to  etiquette  in  the  Public 
Garden  at  Ems,  and  had  there  again  urged  the  claims  of  France,  and  that 
the  King  turning  on  his  heel  had  told  his  aide-de-camp  to  inform  -the 
Ambassador  that  he  had  no  more  to  say  to  him.  This  story  has  since  been 
denied,  but  it  has  been  made  use  of  both  in  France  and  Germany  to  inflame 
popular  passions.  On  Monday  morning  the  '  Times '  announced  the  war, 
and  declared  that  the  French  Emperor  had  committed  the  greatest  crime 
Europe  had  witnessed  for  thirty  years.  The  '  Times '  has  since  persisted 
that  the  war  is  one  of  aggression  on  the  part  of  France  with  the  Rhine 
Provinces  for  object,  but  I  have  never  met  for  years  past  a  Frenchman 
who  has  not  laughed  at  the  idea  of  taking  possession  of  the  Rhine,  or  who 
would  have  given  a  fig  to  annex.  People  expected  a  battle  would  be 
fought  at  once,  but  ten  days  have  passed,  and  no  blow  has  been  struck. 

"  This  morning  the  '  Times '  gives  us  a  new  surprise,  the  draft  of  a 
treaty  between  France  and  Prussia  (undated)  in  which  the  annexation  of 
Belgium  and  Luxemburg  by  France  is  agreed  on  if  necessary  by  force  of 
arms.  The  draft  has  no  appearance  of  authenticity,  its  style  being  unlike 
that  usual  in  treaties,  and  the  French  used  is  poor.  Some  such  scheme 
may  have  been  talked  over  between  the  French  Emperor  and  Bismarck, 
soon  after  the  late  war  (the  war  of  Sadowa),  but  I  cannot  conceive  its 
having  been  thus  put  on  paper.  I  expect  the  French  Government  to  deny 
the  authenticity  of  the  document,  and  perhaps  ultimately  they  make  make 
a  counter-charge  against  Prussia  of  designs  on  Holland.  Feeling  in 
England  is  pretty  well  balanced  between  France  and  Prussia,  but  people 
fail  to  see  that  France  is  in  reality  fighting  for  her  existence.  This  is  no 
war  of  Government  against  Government,  but  of  race  against  race,  of 
France  the  last  of  the  great  Latin  nations  against  Germany.  If  Germany 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  389 

is  beaten  she  will  recover,  if  France  she  will  go  the  way  of  the  other 
Latins.  The  Radical  Party  in  England  side  with  Prussia  because  they  see 
in  it  a  triumph  of  atheism  and  socialism  in  Europe.  France  after  many 
years  goes  forth  to  the  Rhine  singing  the  Marseillaise  in  the  cause  of 
order  and  religion.  It  is  strange. 

"  28th  July. —  We  drove  this  morning  to  St.  Cloud  to  see  the  Emperor 
and  his  son  start  for  the  war.  He  went  off  by  the  back  door,  and  nobody 
saw  him  go.  The  flag  was  pulled  down  exactly  at  ten  o'clock.  The 
Emperor  has  his  headquarters  at  Metz. 

"  2gth  July. —  It  is  decided  that  the  French  garrison  is  to  leave  Rome. 
M.  Visconti  Venosta,  the  Italian  Foreign  Minister,  has  engaged  to  protect 
the  Holy  See  from  the  Garibaldians ;  the  Pope,  however,  is  I  am  sure  quite 
able  to  take  care  of  himself  at  Rome.  The  Foreign  Legion  is,  or  was, 
when  I  saw  it  in  1866  as  fine  a  body  of  men  as  any  in  the  south  of  Europe, 
they  did  not  need  the  French  chassepots  to  beat  the  Garibaldians  at 
Montana;  however,  we  shall  see.  The  announcement  of  the  new  dogma 
of  Papal  infallibility  has  passed  almost  unnoticed  after  all,  though  there 
are  rumours  of  a  schism  in  Germany. 

"3Of/»  July. —  To-day  we  have  a  full  explanation  of  the  projected  treaty 
[that  published  in  the  '  Times '  of  the  27th,  about  Belgium  and  the  Rhine 
provinces].  Benedetti  writes  to  the  official  journal,  stating  that  soon  after 
the  war  of  1866,  being  one  day  with  Bismarck  at  Berlin,  and  talking  as 
they  had  often  talked  of  proposed  territorial  changes  in  Europe,  Bismarck 
said :  '  What  is  the  good  of  always  talking,  why  not  put  our  ideas  in 
writing.'  Thereupon  giving  Benedetti  a  pen  and  paper,  he  dictated  the 
famous  draft  and  kept  it,  as  he  said,  to  show  the  King,  a  stroke  worthy  of 
the  golden  age  of  diplomacy.  I  know  positively  from  Usedom,  who  was  in 
the  thick  of  affairs  in  Prussia  during  the  war  of  1866,  that  Bismarck 
promised  the  Rhine  provinces,  or,  at  least,  those  south  of  the  Moselle,  to 
France  as  the  price  of  her  neutrality,  but  never  with  the  intention  of 
keeping  the  promise.  Benedetti  must  have  been  a  great  donkey  to  be 
gulled  by  Bismarck  in  this  way,  but  the  story  he  gives  of  the  transaction 
bears  the  impress  of  truth.  It  explains  what  was  so  odd  in  the  draft, 
namely,  that  in  quoting  the  names  and  titles  of  the  high  contracting  parties 
the  King  of  Prussia's  name  stands  first.  Bismarck  is  the  most  wonderful 
man  of  his  age,  but  he  has  outwitted  himself  as  well  as  Benedetti  here. 
Public  opinion  in  England  is  veering  round  from  Prussia;  and  Belgium, 
which  is  most  interested,  acquits  France  in  the  matter. 

"  A  skirmish  has  taken  place  on  the  frontier,  where  strangely  enough 
an  Englishman  in  the  Baden  service  was  killed,  the  first  victim  of  the  war, 
his  name  Winslow.  The  addresses  of  the  Emperor  and  the  King  to  their 
troops  are  both  published.  The  King  appeals  to  God  the  Emperor  to 
Glory,  quite  in  the  old  style. 

"  Yesterday  we  drove  to  Versailles  through  the  Forest  of  Meudon,  a 
lovely  old  deserted  road,  never  used  apparently  since  Versailles  became  a 
royal  residence  and  the  new  high  road  was  carried  through  Sevres. 

"  Lascelles  tells  me  the  true  history  of  the  message  sent  by  King  William 
to  M.  Benedetti  '  Allez  trouvez  son  Excellence,'  the  King  said  to  his  aide- 


39°  Appendix  I 

de-camp,  '  et  priez  le  de  venir  baiser  mon  c — 1.'  He  also  related  an  anec- 
dote of  Bismarck  illustrative  of  his  equally  Rabelaisian  style  of  humour." 
[This  anecdote  is  omitted  as  unprintable.] 

"  Aug.  2nd. —  Went  last  night  to  the  Opera  to  hear  '  Masaniello.'  Be- 
tween the  third  and  fourth  acts  the  stage  represented  the  French  camp, 
and  Faure  in  the  uniform  of  the  Garde  Mobile  sang  the  '  Rhin  Allemand '  : 
Nous  1'avons  eu  votre  Rhin  Allemand.  The  Marseillaise  was  then  called 
for  and  Marie  Sasse  came  forward  with  the  tricolor  and  gave  it  amid  great 
enthusiasm.  It  was  the  most  emotional  thing  I  ever  saw  on  the  stage. 
Faure  afterwards  was  called  for  and  sang  the  Marseillaise  in  his  turn, 
kneeling  down  at  the  last  verse,  and  wrapping  himself  in  the  flag.  All 
the  house  stood  up  while  it  was  being  sung.  The  effect  was  lessened  to 
me  by  the  uniform  and  by  the  tricolour  having  on  it  a  little  gilt  eagle,  but 
in  spite  of  this  I  have  seldom  been  so  touched.  [The  Marseillaise  was 
then  being  sung  for  the  first  time  in  Paris,  after  having  been  proscribed 
there  for  twenty  years.] 

"  yd  Aug. —  It  is  officially  announced  that  a  division  of  the  French  army 
has  captured  the  heights  above  Saarbruck  and  driven  the  Prussians  out  of 
the  town,  Saarbruck  being  just  over  the  frontier.  The  Emperor  and  the 
Prince  Imperial  were  present  and  under  fire. 

"  $th,  Aug.,  9  p.m. —  Learned  at  the  Embassay  that  the  Prussians  had 
taken  Vissembourg  yesterday  and  that  General  Douai  had  been  killed,  one 
gun  captured.  They  told  me  a  battle  was  being  fought  to-day,  the  news 
hitherto  rather  unfavourable  to  the  French.  MacMahon  had  80,000  men 
under  his  command,  so  it  should  be  a  great  battle.  [This  proved  to  be  the 
battle  of  Worth.]  I  have  arranged  in  case  of  a  defeat  to  send  my  wife 
and  Miss  Noel  [her  cousin  Alice  Noel  who  was  staying  with  us]  to  Havre 
with  the  carriage  and  horses.  I  shall  stay  here  myself.  Paris  has  been 
very  silent  this  evening.  I  told  Julie  at  dinner  that  the  Emperor  had  been 
killed.  '  Quant  a  cela,'  she  said,  '  si  je  vois  aujourd'hui  passer  son  enterre- 
ment  je  ne  dirai  que  tant  mieux.'  The  weather  since  noon  has  been  sultry 
with  an  attempt  at  thunder.  There  is  a  heavy  black  cloud  over  the  sky 
to-night. 

"6th  Aug. —  Last  night  at  half-past  ten,  hearing  that  something  was 
happening  on  the  boulevard  I  went  out.  Bands  of  men  were  marching  up 
and  down  singing  patriotic  songs,  the  boulevard  crowded,  people  talking  in 
knots.  There  was  the  rumour  of  a  defeat.  (According  to  the  'Times' 
the  French  had  been  driven  out  of  Vissemberg,  one  gun  taken  and  500 
unwounded  prisoners,  also  the  French  camp  taken.  Vissembourg  is  a  few 
miles  from  Rastadt,  where  the  Prussian  Crown  Prince  has  his  headquar- 
ters.) I  sat  down  outside  Bignon's  to  read  the  '  National,'  and  was  joined 
there  by  Malet  and  Lascelles.  They  are  both  staunch  Frenchmen.  They 
considered  it  looked  very  bad  there  being  no  news.  They  knew  a  severe 
battle  was  being  fought  that  afternoon.  I  dreamed  all  night  of  Prussians 
and  their  victories.  God  rot  them ! 

"  This  morning  I  went  to  the  Embassy  to  volunteer  my  services  to  the 
Chancery,  as  they  have  more  work  there  than  they  can  do.  They  seemed 
to  think  that  after  all  there  had  been  no  fighting  yesterday.  At  half-past 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  391 

two  Julie  rushed  into  the  room  telling  me  that  a  great  victory  had  been 
won,  the  Prince  of  Prussia  and  20,000  prisoners  taken.  It  was  too  good 
to  be  true,  but  flags  were  being  put  up  everywhere  in  the  streets.  I  ordered 
out  the  carriage  and  drove  down  the  Rue  de  Rivoli  eastwards  and  on  round 
the  boulevards.  The  Faubourg  St.  Antoine  and  all  the  east  end  of  Paris 
was  a  mass  of  flags  and  excitement.  After  the  Boulevard  des  Italiens, 
however,  on  our  way  back  these  thinned  and  at  the  Madeleine  all  was 
bare  as  on  ordinary  days,  till  on  arriving  at  the  Embassy,  we  found  that 
the  whole  thing  was  a  gigantic  canard.  Somebody  had  posted  up  a  tele- 
gram with  this  news  at  the  Bourse,  and  in  a  couple  of  hours  the  excite- 
ment had  reached  every  corner  of  Paris.  In  the  afternoon  an  attack  was 
made  by  the  mob  on  the  Bourse  and  its  frequenters.  The  man  who  had 
posted  up  the  telegram  was  nearly  torn  to  pieces,  and  the  Jews  and  other 
rascals  who  were  there  had  the  coats  torn  off  their  backs. 

"yth  Aug. —  This  morning  the  news  seems  bad.  The  '  Figaro '  says 
that  it  is  a  time  for  calm  and  dignity. 

"  4  o'clock  —  MacMahon  has  been  defeated  in  a  great  battle  at  Reich- 
shoffen  [Worth].  He  has  retreated  on  Nancy;  his  communications  with 
Metz  were  cut,  but  seem  now  to  be  restored.  On  the  same  day  yesterday 
General  Frossart  was  driven  out  of  Saarbruck.  The  Emperor  in  his 
bulletin  says  that  great  sacrifices  must  be  made  by  the  country.  There  is 
great  depression  in  Paris.  A  band  of  respectable  people  came  past  our 
house  shouting  'La  patrie  en  danger!  Des  fusils!  A  la  frontiere!'  At 
this  moment  a  great  crowd  is  collecting  round  the  Tuileries.  Julie  has 
gone  out  to  see  what  the  news  is.  Claremont  says  the  French  have  been 
outnumbered,  that  they  had  not  200,000  men  in  the  field.  The  Empress  is 
at  the  Tuileries.  People  begin  to  talk  ominously  about  the  present  dynasty. 
Dalmand  at  the  Tennis  Court  [he  was  third  panmicr  to  the  tennis  court 
of  which  I  was  a  member  close  by  in  the  north-east  corner  of  the  Tuileries 
Gardens]  says  he  has  only  one  wish,  to  die  by  a  Prussian  bullet ! 

"  Yesterday  a  mob  assembled  at  the  Place  Vendome  and  forced  Ollivier 
to  make  a  speech  from  his  balcony.  He  promised  the  news  should  be 
placarded  every  two  hours.  Paris  is  declared  in  a  state  of  siege.  I  have 
ordered  the  carriage  for  ten  o'clock  to-morrow  to  drive  to  Nantes,  whence 
Anne  and  Miss  Noel  will  go  on  to  Deauville.  I  shall  return  by  train.  I 
am  afraid  of  the  horses  being  seized  for  the  war. 

"  5  o'clock. —  Julie  has  come  back  to  say  that  the  Emperor's  despatch 
was  that  he  did  not  know  where  MacMahon  was.  This  looks  very  bad. 

"  The  battle  where  Frossart  was  beaten  was  Forbach.  MacMahon's 
they  call  Freshvillers.  If  MacMahon  has  been  cut  off  we  may  expect  the 
French  centre  to  be  attacked  on  both  sides  and  probably  beaten  some- 
where in  front  of  Metz. 

"  8th  August. —  No  news  this  morning.  MacMahon  seems  to  have 
joined  the  main  army  before  Metz.  The  Parisians  are  rapidly  becoming 
demoralized,  the  Bonapartists  blaming  the  Republicans,  the  Republicans 
the  Bonapartists,  and  both  blaming  Fortune.  All  parties  seem  inclined  to 
lay  down  their  arms  directly  the  army  is  beaten.  I  was  not  wrong  in 
believing  that  twenty  years  of  Caesarism  had  destroyed  virtue  in  France. 


392  Appendix  I 

It  is  well  to  talk  of  1792,  but  the  Republicans  then  were  other  men  than 
now,  and  when  their  army  was  beaten  the  people  fought  on.  To-day 
French  patriotism  is  limited  to  killing  the  enemy.  Nobody  cares  to  be 
killed.  Paris  will  probably  open  her  gates  to  the  Germans,  and  having 
consented  to  a  disgraceful  peace  she  will  then  settle  matters  with  her 
rulers.  I  have  sent  Anne,  Miss  Noel,  and  the  horses  to  Deauville  to  wait 
till  events  declare  themselves.  There  were  no  particular  disturbances  last 
night.  The  English  are  flying  from  Paris.  I  believe  Paris  to  be  impreg- 
nable if  held  by  a  sufficient  force.  It  is  also  too  large  to  invest.  If  the 
remains  of  the  army  after  a  defeat  were  to  throw  itself  into  the  capital 
it  might  form  a  nucleus  for  the  whole  nation.  Let  them  proclaim  a 
Republic  if  they  will  or  take  one  of  the  Orleans  princes  for  king,  but  let 
them  continue  the  war.  France  can  never  make  peace  on  her  defeat  or 
she  must  perish.  The  windows  of  the  Tuileries  were  lighted  all  last 
night.  It  is  remarkable  that  not  a  word  of  sympathy  with  the  Empress 
Eugenie  can  be  heard. 

"  7  o'clock. —  It  is  reported,  but  not  officially,  that  King  William  crossed 
the  Rhine  last  night  with  120,000  men  at  Colmar.  I  have  been  playing 
tennis  with  Lascelles.  He  takes  a  brighter  view  of  things  than  I  do.  He 
thinks  that  a  defeat  would  not  end  the  war,  but  that  a  Republic  will  be 
proclaimed  under  Gambetta  or  Jules  Simon  and  the  war  be  carried  on. 
He  thinks  that  if  the  Prussians  enter  Paris  they  will  find  a  Republic  there, 
and  will  place  the  Comte  de  Paris  on  the  throne,  but  I  am  certain  no 
Orleans  Prince  would  accept  the  Crown  at  such  hands.  Perhaps  Napoleon 
will  put  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  Prussians.  Who  knows,  perhaps 
Bismarck  might  re-seat  him  on  his  throne.  All  the  foreign  Ministers  have 
been  to  Lord  Lyons  to  ask  what  they  shall  do  in  case  a  Republic  is  pro- 
claimed. Metternich  (the  Austrian  Ambassador)  has  sent  his  Pauline 
(Mme.  de  Metternich)  to  Calais.  As  we  came  out  of  the  tennis  court  we 
saw  Persigny  driving  past  in  his  Victoria  towards  the  Tuileries. 

"  12  o'clock  (midnight). —  Dined  on  the  Boulevard.  Great  crowds  of 
people.  Saw  a  carriage  attacked  by  twenty  or  thirty  people,  a  man  stand- 
ing up  in  it  looking  very  pale  and  waving  his  arms.  A  troop  of  dragoons 
came  down  the  Boulevard  and  people  cried,  'A  la  fronticre!'  This  is 
because  they  think  no  troops  should  remain  at  Paris.  The  dragoons  trotted 
on  to  the  Louvre  and  are  now  in  the  Carrousel. 

"  The  Prince  Imperial  has  come  back  and  it  is  said  the  Emperor  was 
also  there  (in  the  Tuileries)  ;  some  think  he  is  there  now.  Ollivier  is 
also  supposed  to  be  in  hiding  at  the  Palace,  though  a  cordon  of  police 
guards  his  house  in  the  Place  Vendome  at  night.  Julienne's  husband,  who 
is  head  waiter  at  the  Hotel  Meurice,  told  Julie  that  the  Comte  de  Paris 
was  there  five  days  ago.  I  believe  he  will  be  in  Paris  again  as  President 
or  King  before  a  month  is  out.  Sedition  is  talked  openly  and  by  respec- 
table persons  of  all  sorts.  The  '  Soir '  used  guarded  but  very  plain 
language  to-night  and  I  believe  it  is  certain  that  the  deputies  of  the  Left 
signed  a  document  requesting  the  Bonaparte  family  to  withdraw  from 
France.  If  the  French  can  get  rid  of  this  incubus  they  may  find  heart 
to  fight  their  battle  out.  The  Emperor  has  shown  himself  in  this  crisis 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  393 

what  I  have  always  held  him  to  be,  an  irresolute  man,  incapable  of  any 
great  sustained  policy.  I  believe  him  to  have  permitted  Grammont's 
original  speech  on  the  Hohenzollern  question  with  the  intention  and  full 
expectation  of  the  matter  being  compromised,  but  the  country  carried  him 
away  and  he  was  obliged  to  follow.  He  has  been  carried  fairly  off  his 
legs;  even  a  great  victory  could  now  hardly  keep  him  on  his  throne.  //  a 
gene  la  patrie."  [What  I  did  not  know  at  the  time  of  writing  this  was  that 
Napoleon  III  was  incapacitated  from  playing  the  difficult  part  demanded 
of  him  in  the  crisis  by  an  attack  of  the  stone,  which  caused  him  great 
suffering.  The  decision,  therefore,  between  peace  and  war  had  been  left 
practically  in  the  Empress's  hands,  to  whom  the  blame  of  the  decision 
rightly  belongs.] 

"  I  am  more  hopeful  of  the  National  honour  to-night.  The  army  beaten, 
the  French  ought  still  to  have  heart  to  win  the  campaign,  holding  as  they 
do  the  sea  [Prussia  at  that  time  had  almost  no  navy].  They  can  in  time 
starve  the  enemy  out.  As  I  sat  at  dinner  the  poet  Morin  came  to  speak  to 
me.  He  was  very  earnest  in  asking  my  candid  opinion  on  the  state  of 
France.  He  seemed  much  emotione,  but  I  noticed  that  he  ate  a  capital 
dinner. 

"  gth  August,  12  o'clock  (noon). —  At  the  Embassy  they  talk  of  a 
Republic  under  the  dictatorship  of  General  Trochu.  I  confess  I  never 
heard  of  him  before.  The  Chamber  opens  to-day.  Great  bands  of  blouses 
have  marched  there,  and  a  great  band  also  of  police.  They  say  the  Oppo- 
sition will  demand  the  immediate  arming  of  all  the  citizens  of  Paris  in- 
scribed on  the  Electoral  Roll.  This  morning  Julie  came  in  to  me  with  my 
little  dog  Rachael  dying  in  her  arms. 

"  Something  must  have  happened  to  the  Emperor ;  he  has  either  run  away 
or  abdicated  or  been  shot.  These  ideas  pass  through  one's  mind.  No  one 
ever  mentions  him. 

"  2  p.m. —  They  are  shutting  the  Tuileries  garden  gates. 

"  6  p.m. —  I  ran  out  and  found  the  gates  shut,  but  at  the  Tennis  Court 
gate  by  saying  I  was  a  societaire  they  let  me  in,  and  looking  over  the  balus- 
trade of  the  terrace,  saw  some  thousands  of  people  collected  in  the  Place 
de  la  Concorde  and  on  the  Bridge  in  front  of  the  Corps  Legislatif.  Biboche 
and  Serafin  and  Dalmand,  the  three  pattmiers,  are  absurdly  impressioned  by 
the  course  of  events.  Biboche  is  a  Bonapartist,  Dalmand  a  patriot  without 
colour,  Etienne,  the  marker,  fancies  the  Republic,  and  Serafin  has  tout 
^implement  a  wife  at  home  with  the  scarlet  fever.  All  look  upon  France 
as  lost.  At  three  o'clock  we  were  turned  out  of  the  Tennis  Court,  and 
the  garden  was  cleared  of  nurses  and  lovers.  I  went  and  sat  in  the  Place 
de  la  Concorde  for  an  hour,  till  driven  in  by  a  thunderstorm,  which 
stopped  any  revolution,  if  such  was  intended. 

"  A  band  came  by  our  house  just  now,  singing,  with  a  ridiculous  young 
negro  marching  in  front  flourishing  a  wooden  sword.  I  am  beginning  to 
tire  of  the  crisis.  General  Leboeuf  has  resigned  his  command,  Bazaine 
becomes  Commander-in-Chief.  [It  was  Leboeuf  who.  when  the  Emperor 
asked  him  whether  the  army  was  completely  ready  for  war,  answered 
'  Jusqu'au  dernier  bouton.'  ] 


394  Appendix  I 

"  12  p.m.  (midnight). —  On  a  motion  by  Jules  Favre  for  the  organization 
and  arming  of  the  National  Guard  throughout  France  the  Government 
have  been  beaten  by  243  to  21.  A  second  proposal  for  the  formation  of  a 
Committee  of  National  Defence  in  the  House  was  also  thrown  out.  In 
consequence  of  the  first  vote  the  Ministry  has  resigned.  Count  Palikao 
(General  Montauban)  is  charged  with  the  formation  of  a  new  Ministry. 
This  is  considered  as  being  virtually  an  overthrow  of  the  Empire.  It  is 
expected  that  the  new  Ministry  will  declare  the  House  the  supreme  author- 
ity, and  that  the  Imperial  Family  will  be  invited  to  leave  France.  Marshal 
Bazaine  has  accepted  the  command  in  chief.  General  Changarnier  the 
Republican  has  been  received  by  the  Emperor  at  Metz  and  has  appeared 
in  public  with  him.  [Changarnier  had  been  a  rival  candidate  to  Louis 
Napoleon  when  they  stood  for  the  Presidentship  of  the  Republic  in  1850.] 

"  I  dined  with  Lascelles  and  met  M.  de  Hiibner  (the  Austrian).  He  is  a 
violent  hater  of  Prussia,  but  declares  that  she  must  crush  France.  I  cannot 
think  that  if  only  Frenchmen  will  be  true  to  themselves,  if  the  army  can 
throw  itself  into  Paris,  all  may  yet  be  well.  Austria,  Denmark,  and  even 
England  may  think  it  the  moment  to  intervene;  Prussia  cannot  support  a 
long  war  with  all  her  ports  blockaded.  But  if  the  French  accept  the  terms 
offered  on  a  defeat  they  will  be  lost  for  ever.  Imperial  France  has  no 
virtue  to  fall  back  upon;  a  Republic  is  their  best  chance;  it  is  the  only 
name  that  has  a  power  to  rouse. 

"  When  I  came  home  Julie  talked  of  her  recollections  of  the  Emperor. 
She  remembered  seeing  him  when  he  came  back  to  Paris  in  1852,  and, 
when  kneeling  on  the  steps  of  the  Madeleine,  he  was  blessed  by  the  cure. 
As  he  rode  from  the  church  and  entered  the  gate  leading  from  the  Place  de 
la  Concorde  into  the  Tuileries  garden,  a  crown  of  flowers  was  let  down 
from  the  upper  part  of  the  grille  upon  his  head,  and  the  people  called  out 
for  the  first  time,  '  Vive  1'Empereur ! '  Three  weeks  later  he  was  crowned 
at  Notre  Dame.  She  also  talked  of  his  marriage,  and  Julie  knew  the 
details  because  she  was  in  Henry  Howard's  service,  and  he  was  Mrs. 
Gould's  lover.1  Mademoiselle  Montijo  was  taken  to  Compiegne  by  Mrs. 
Gould,  though  she  was  not  invited,  and  there  the  Emperor  saw  her  out 
riding.  She  was  very  beautiful,  and  had  a  wonderfully  fair  complexion. 
The  Emperor,  although  he  knew  she  was  the  Marquis  d'Aguado's  mistress, 
had  a  caprice  for  her,  and  wanted  to  make  her  leave  Aguado,  but  she  said 
he  must  marry  her  and  he  did  so,  in  spite  of  his  friends  and  Ministers. 
He  said  in  his  excuse  that  having,  as  they  told  him,  done  so  much  for 
France,  France  must  do  this  for  him.  According  to  Julie,  Napoleon  and 
Eugenie  made  maiwais  menage  at  first,  but  the  Empress  had  never  been 
reproached  for  misconduct  since  the  marriage.  The  child,  the  Prince 
Imperial,  was  certainly  hers,  as  any  one  could  see  by  comparing  her  photo- 
graph with  the  boy's.  People  had  said  that  he  was  not,  but  this  was 
untrue.  Julie  has  often  been  with  letters  from  Howard  to  Mademoiselle 
Montijo,  when  she  lived  with  her  mother  in  the  Place  Vendome,  un 
miserable  entresol  sur  la  cour.  The  house  is  No.  4,  I  think  she  said,  in 
the  south-east  corner  of  the  square.  She  and  her  mother  kept  two  women 

1  The  Honble.  Henry  Howard,  Secretary  at  Paris. 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  395 

servants,  a  cook  and  a  bonne.  Julie  cited  as  a  sign  of  the  misere  in  which 
they  lived,  that  these  women  wore  handkerchiefs  on  their  heads  instead  of 
caps.  Aguado,  elder  brother  of  the  Comte  and  Vicomte,  kept  a  one-horse 
remise  for  her,  and  provided  for  them  in  other  ways.  Julie  declares  that 
Eugenie  had  other  worshippers,  too,  '  meme  des  Allemands.'  Aguado  was 
married  to  an  Englishwoman,  who  is  now  remarried  to  his  brother,  the 
Vicomte.  He  went  mad  when  Mademoiselle  Monti  jo  married  the  Emperor, 
and  afterwards  died.  She  lived  on  in  the  Place  Vendome  till  the  week 
before  her  marriage,  when  she  was  taken  to  the  Tuileries  to  be  married 
from  there  at  Notre  Dame.  Such  is  Julie's  account.  Julie  and  M.  Perrier, 
Howard's  valent,  used  to  talk  these  over  together,  '  Ce  pauvre  M.  Perrier 
qui  est  mart'  History  is  written  from  such  intimate  talk. 

"  My  own  recollections  of  the  Emperor  are  not  very  many.  I  saw  him 
for  the  first  time  in  1851,  on  the  day  of  his  coup  d'etat,  when  he  became 
President  for  life.  We,  my  brother  Francis  and  I,  with  our  mother,  were 
passing  through  Paris  on  our  way  to  Italy,  and  we  were  staying  at  the 
Hotel  Wagram,  only  two  doors  from  my  present  apartment  here  in  the 
Rue  de  Rivoli.  Francis  and  I  went  out  with  our  tutor,  Edmund  Coffin,  to 
see  what  was  going  on  in  the  streets.  The  Rue  de  Rivoli  was  full  of 
people,  and  there  was  a  cordon  of  gendarmes  between  it  and  the  Place  de  la 
Concorde.  '  Libert e,  Egalite,  et  Fratcrnitc '  was  still  written  up  every- 
where on  the  walls.  The  President  rode  by  close  to  us  with  his  Staff,  and 
passed  up  the  Rue  Royale.  This  was  a  very  early  recollection,  before  he 
was  Emperor.  When  I  next  saw  him  it  was  at  Biarritz  in  1863.  He  used 
to  walk  about  there  leaning  on  the  arm  of  his  Chamberlain,  Tascher  de  la 
Pagerie,  moving  slowly  like  an  old  man.  I  went  one  evening  to  a  ball  at 
the  Pavilion,  and  was  presented  to  him  and  the  Empress.  The  Empress 
reminded  me  that  she  had  seen  me  at  Madrid  some  months  before,  which 
was  true,  for  I  had  been  to  an  audience  of  the  Corps  Diplomatique  when 
she  was  paying  her  visit  to  Queen  Isabella.  At  the  ball  the  Emperor 
walked  about  looking  bored,  not  at  all  as  if  he  was  in  his  own  house.  He 
is  a  thick-set,  coarsely  made  man  (with  legs  too  short  for  his  body),  and 
in  his  uniform  might  be  taken  for  a  sergeant.  He  has  nothing  remarkable 
in  his  face,  except  his  cold  green  eyes,  which  have  a  strangely  fascinating, 
but  repellent  power.  They  give  him  a  certain  distinction.  I  have  since, 
while  at  the  Embassy,  been  to  balls  at  the  Tuileries,  but  have  never  had 
personal  speech  with  him.  I  have  listened  to  him,  however,  talking  once 
for  twenty  minues  at  a  time  with  Lord  Cowley,  at  one  of  the  receptions 
while  the  Empress  was  finishing  her  cercle.  They  were  discussing  on  that 
occasion  a  review  there  had  been  of  the  English  and  French  fleets,  and  his 
remarks  were  the  essence  of  commonplace.  He  has  none  of  the  ease  of 
manner,  the  lightness  of  thought,  the  esprit  Gaulois  which  go  so  far  in 
France,  a  heavy,  slow-thinking  man,  talking  French  with  a  provincial 
accent.  It  is  strange  that  such  a  man  should  have  ruled  the  French  for 
twenty  years.  If  he  had  died  a  month  ago  he  would  have  left  a  great 
name  in  history.  Now  who  knows?  He  may  be  ranked  on  a  level  with 
Louis  Philippe.  Such  are  the  chances  of  a  man's  glory. 

"  loth  Aug. —  I  have  drawn  £40  in  five-franc  pieces  for  the  siege.     It  is 


396  'Appendix  1 

already  difficult  to  change  bank  notes.  The  town  is  quieter  to-day.  No 
news  from  the  army.  A  list  of  the  new  Ministry  is  published,  Palikao,  La 
Tour  d'Auvergne,  Magne,  Rigault,  Girardin  —  more  Bonapartist  than 
ever.  The  Chamber  supports  them  for  the  present.  Paris  is  full  of  troops, 
500  Marines  marched  past  our  house  this  morning  on  their  way  to  the  war, 
all  stout,  smart  fellows.  I  take  it  no  troops  have  ever  fought  better  than 
the  French  have  done. 

"  I  have  been  reading  Prevost  Paradol's  last  book,  '  La  France  Nouvelle,' 
published  last  year.  The  concluding  chapter  reads  prophetically  now.  He 
gives  the  future  of  the  world  to  the  English  race,  true  enough  if  it  includes 
our  off-shoots,  American  and  Colonial,  but  he  hardly  foresees  what  must 
happen,  the  extinction  of  England  herself.  England's  political  life  will  be 
over  the  day  that  Holland  is  annexed  to  Germany.  There  is  also  little 
sign  of  the  continuance  of  the  intellectual  eminence  of  our  race.  Litera- 
ture never  long  survives  a  nation's  decline,  and  in  the  English  speaking 
off-shoots  no  sign  of  intellectual  life  has  yet  been  given,  though  America 
has  had  a  hundred  years  of  independence.  The  English  language,  how- 
ever, is  never  likely  to  become  a  dead  one.  Her  literature  will  still  live, 
even  if  it  ceases  to  be  productive;  in  France  it  is  otherwise.  French  will 
be  a  dead  language,  as  dead  at  least  as  Spanish  is.  As  for  German,  which 
is  to  become  the  language  of  Europe,  it  shows  no  sign  of  producing  a 
readable  literature.  The  only  German  I  can  read  is  Goethe's,  who  took 
the  best  of  his  inspiration  from  Rousseau.  Where  he  is  purely  German, 
he  is  pedantic  and  wearisome.  Germany  possesses  some  good  lyric  poetry, 
but  romance,  tragedy,  history,  all  are  dull.  ^What  is  really  meritorious  is 
the  scientific  writing,  but  that  is  owing  to  the  matter  rather  than  the 
manner.  The  Volkslieder  have  the  melancholy  charm  of  barbarous  poetry, 
but  the  serious  poets  are  without  humour.  German  is  bourgeois  and  its 
literature  bourgeois.  [This  is  a  poor  diagnosis.  I  ought  to  have  at  least 
excepted  Heine,  but  I  left  him  out,  I  suppose,  as  being  a  Jew  living  at 
Paris,  and  more  of  a  Frenchman  than  of  a  German.] 

"  I4th  Aug. —  Deauville.  I  came  here  on  the  night  of  the  nth,  as 
there  was  no  special  news  at  Paris.  The  day  I  left,  old  Barre  (the  doyen 
of  the  Paris  Tennis  Court)  came  to  breakfast  with  me  and  after  it  we 
played  tennis,  Brinquant  making  us  a  chouette.  Barre  was  playing  in 
better  form  that  I  can  remember  him.  Brinquant  has  just  been  called  out 
to  join  the  army,  being  between  the  ages  of  twenty-five  and  thirty-five. 
He  will  have  to  go  as  a  '  simple  pioupiou.'  Substitutes  are  still  to  be  had 
at  8,000  francs,  but  it  is  considered  dishonourable  not  to  march  in  person. 
In  the  middle  of  our  game  a  company  of  grenadiers  marched  in  through 
the  door  by  the  net,  and  took  formal  possession  of  the  Court,  turning  us 
out.  The  officer  in  command  saluting  us  politely  from  the  net  with  his 
drawn  sword,  saying,  '  Messieurs,  vous  etes  pries  d'evacuer  le  jeu.'  [This 
proved  to  be  absolutely  the  last  game  old  Barre,  the  champion  paumier  of 
his  day,  ever  played,  for  he  died  of  the  hardships  of  the  siege,  though  not 
till  1872.  He  was  a  wonderful  player,  especially  on  the  floor  of  the  Court, 
so  that  though  I  was  then  young  and  active,  he  could  still  give  me  the 
walls.  In  private  life  he  was  excellent  company,  and  some  of  us  used  to 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  397 

invite  him  to  restaurant  dinners,  where  his  stories  were  of  the  best  of  an 
extreme  grivois  kind,  for*  he  had  led  the  gayest  of  gay  lives.]  In  the  train, 
as  I  came  down  here  from  Paris,  I  got  into  conversation  with  two  deputies 
from  Mantes.  One  narrated  his  having  asked  Grammont  how  it  was  that 
the  army  had  been  caught  unprepared?  Grammont  had  answered  that 
before  making  his  declaration  to  the  Chamber  he  had  inquired  of  Le  Bosuf, 
'  Are  you  ready  ? '  and  Le  Boeuf  had  replied,  '  I  can  put  600,000  men  on  the 
Rhine  in  a  fortnight.'  Everybody  is  angry  with  Le  Boeuf. 

"  A  letter  is  published  from  the  Prince  de  Joinville  offering  his  services 
to  the  Emperor.  Changarnier  has  been  made  Commandant  de  place  at 
Metz.  He  is  seventy-two  years  old.  On  Friday  the  I2th,  Anne,  Alice 
Noel,  and  I  drove  to  Glanville,  from  which  village  the  Glanvilles  of 
Catchfrench  claim  originally  to  have  come.  There  is  a  chateau  there, 
which  we  visited,  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIII,  undergoing  restoration  by  its 
propretor,  M.  de  Glanville,  a  man  of  sixty,  whom  we  found  at  work  weed- 
ing in  his  grounds.  I  noticed  that  the  coat  of  arms  over  the  door  was  not 
our  English  Glanville  coat,  and  he  told  me  that  he  had  not  the  pretension 
of  descending  from  the  original  family.  It  must  have  been  a  picturesque 
old  place  before  the  restoration,  the  avenues  and  the  park  round  it  good, 
the  elms  just  like  the  Cornish  elms  at  Catchfrench,  the  country  about  it 
beautiful  and  very  English.  We  then  drove  on  to  Pont  1'Eveque,  a 
charming,  sleepy  old  town  full  of  cats,  and  dined  at  the  Bras  d'or,  a  drum 
was  beating  there,  and  a  crier  calling  out  all  men  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty-five  for  the  war.  Later  we  saw  the  mayor  posting  up  a  notice 
announcing  the  capture  of  Nancy  by  a  detachment  of  the  enemy's  cavalry. 

"  i6th,  Aug. —  Paris.  I  came  up  yesterday  morning  by  train  from 
Deauville,  and  on  my  way  to  the  station  read  a  telegram  announcing  that 
the  French  army  had  crossed  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Moselle,  and  meeting 
the  Prussians  in  force  had  repulsed  them.  The  telegram  is  dated  Longue- 
ville  and  signed  Napoleon.  The  Emperor  seems  to  have  left  Metz  on  the 
i4th  at  two  o'clock  intending  to  go  to  Chalons.  Nancy,  which  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  Prussians,  is  a  town  of  30,000  inhabitants.  It  is  quite  open, 
and  was  occupied  by  them  without  resistance.  The  advance  posts  of  the 
enemy  have  been  pushed  on  to  Toul  and  S.  Mihiel. 

"  Yesterday  was  the  festival  of  S.  Napoleon,  probably  the  last  which 
will  be  ever  celebrated  in  France.  Paris  was  silent  as  the  grave,  and  when 
I  first  arrived  I  thought  a  disaster  must  have  happened.  Bands  of  men 
were  at  work  on  the  fortifications.  There  is  much  to  do  before  Paris  can 
resist  a  siege,  houses  to  be  razed  and  trees  cut  down.  There  were  no 
illuminations  and  scarcely  a  flag.  I  remember  the  fete  of  the  I5th  of 
August  in  1864  when  I  had  just  joined  the  Embassy  as  attache.  The 
Emperor  was  then  still  popular,  believed  to  be  the  longest  head  in  Europe. 
The  Place  de  la  Concorde,  the  Quays  and  the  Invalides  were  one  great 
crowd,  theatres  open  to  the  public  gratis,  shows  and  entertainments  at 
every  corner.  A  balloon  was  being  sent  up  from  the  Champ  de  Mars. 
Carriages  were  forbidden  to  circulate  in  the  too  crowded  streets,  all  but 
those  of  the  foreign  Ambassadors.  I  had  only  that  morning  arrived,  and 
Lady  Cowley  took  me  with  her  and  her  daughter,  Lady  Feodore,  and 


398  Appendix  I 

Sudley  in  her  own  barouche,  and  we  drove  up  the  Champs  Elysees  at  a 
foot's  pace,  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  good-natured  Parisian  crowd  for 
the  illuminations.  Now  quel  degringolage ! 

"  The  night  before  last  there  was  an  emeute  in  the  Villette,  a  band  of 
men  crying  '  Vive  la  Republique,'  attacked  some  unfortunate  pompiers  in 
their  guard  house,  killed  two  or  three,  and  then  fired  into  the  mob  who 
were  coming  to  the  rescue.  They  were  some  fifty  or  sixty  armed  with 
daggers  and  revolvers,  but  after  a  show  of  fight  they  ran  away,  some  being 
caught  and  almost  torn  to  pieces.  The  incident  has  been  put  down  to  '  the 
gold  of  Bismarck,'  just  as  in  former  days  there  was  talk  of  '  the  gold  of 
Pitt.'  Paris  is  still  full  of  Germans;  there  will  be  a  general  massacre  of 
these  if  it  comes  to  a  siege,  perhaps  of  us  English  too.  At  this  end  of 
the  town  everything  is  quiet.  Count  d'Aquila  who  arrived  at  Deauville 
with  eighteen  of  his  favourite  horses  the  day  before  I  left,  has  made  over 
his  house  in  the  Avenue  de  1'Imperatrice  for  an  ambulance,  so  I  hear  has 
Evans  the  American  dentist. 

"  5  p.m. —  A  letter  has  been  posted  officially  from  the  sous-pref et  of 
Verdun,  stating  that  cannonading  was  heard  the  whole  of  yesterday,  and 
that  it  was  reported  the  Prussians  had  lost  40,000  men  the  day  before  near 
Metz.  On  the  other  hand  the  '  Independence  Beige '  gives  a  despatch 
from  Berlin  from  King  William  to  the  Queen  of  Prussia  announcing  a 
glorious  victory.  Edmond  About  writes  in  the  '  Soir '  describing  the  entry 
of  the  Prussians  into  Saverne  and  MacMahon's  retreat.  The  French,  he 
says,  were  ridiculously  commanded.  The  Prussians  are  levying  contribu- 
tions in  France  just  as  they  did  in  Frankfort  and  Homburg  in  the  war 
of  1866. 

"  ifth  Aug. —  This  is  my  birthday  of  thirty,  it  finds  me  healthy,  wealthy, 
and  wise,  three  things  I  never  thought  to  be.  Anne  has  made  me  a 
birthday  present  of  a  silver  coffee  pot,  I  have  long  coveted,  a  Louis  XVI 
one  of  very  beautiful  French  design.  I  have  nothing  left  to  wish  for  as  a 
birthday  gift,  except  the  destruction  of  the  German  army. 

"  I  went  last  night  to  the  Gymnase  theatre,  where  they  gave  '  Diane  de 
Lys,'  the  moral  of  which  is,  '  II  a  voulu  garder  sa  femme  et  il  1'a  gardee.' 
The  French  pieces  now  generally  give  the  beau  role  to  the  husband  on 
the  stage  as  is  also  the  case  sometimes  in  real  life,  such  as  in  that  of 
Beaumont  who  wounded  his  wife's  three  lovers  one  after  the  other.  One 
of  the  three  duels  was  with  Metternich.  Metternich  has,  as  all  the  world 
knows,  been  Mme.  de  Persigny's  lover,  and  then  made  court  to  Mme.  de 
Beaumont.  She  taxed  him  one  day  with  his  former  devotion,  and  to  prove 
to  her  that  it  was  at  an  end  he  made  over  to  her  Mme.  de  Persigny's  letters 
to  him.  These  were  found  by  Beaumont  in  his  wife's  drawer  along  with 
letters  to  her  from  Metternich.  The  Ambassador,  who  is  no  Palladin, 
refused  to  fight.  Beaumont  threatened  to  expose  his  treachery  to  Mme. 
de  Persigny.  The  matter  was  laid  before  the  Emperor,  and  Metternich, 
it  being  decided  he  must  fight,  was  run  through  the  body,  but  soon  recov- 
ered. Beaumont  also  wounded  du  Hallay  and  another,  whose  letters  also 
had  been  found.  Now  nobody  dares  approach  Mme.  de  Beaumont. 
Metternich  is  what  is  called  a  gros  fat,  who  likes  to  be  called  Monseigneur. 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  399 

I  have  played  tennis  with  him,  but  he  is  a  poor  performer.  Du  Hallay  is 
a  fat,  funny  young  man,  fond  of  a  joke,  but  one  would  think  innocuous 
in  a  virtuous  household 

"  De  Vogue,  MacMahon's  aide-de-camp,  was  killed  at  Worth,  a  good- 
looking,  very  charming  man  of  about  thirty-five,  bald,  but  the  ideal  of  the 
beau  tnilitaire.  I  used  to  know  him  in  1865,  meeting  him  often  at  Madame 
Arcos'  (the  Empress  Eugenie's  lady  in  waiting).  He  was  at  that  time 
Princess  Poniatowska's  lover  —  she  a  very  pretty  woman,  tall,  blonde,  and 
amusing. 

"  The  Orleans  Princes  have  been  refused  service  in  the  army. 

"  iSth  Aug. —  Yesterday  at  half-past  five  Blount,  the  Banker,  came  to 
the  Embassy,  and  announced  that  a  great  victory  had  been  won  the  day 
before,  the  i6th.  He  stated  that  he  had  seen  press  copies  of  the  despatches, 
and  that  the  details  were  most  complete.  Schneider,  President  of  the 
Chamber,  fully  believed  the  news,  and  Ministers  were  only  waiting  to 
announce  it  till  written  accounts  should  come.  All  the  result  was  a  tele- 
gram published  '  hier  16.  II  y  a  eu  une  affaire  tres  serieuse  du  cote  de 
Gravelotte.  Nous  avons  eu  1'avantage  dans  le  combat,  mais  nos  pertes  sont 
grandes.  Comte  de  Palikao.'  And  this  morning  the  '  Figaro '  gives  an 
account  of  the  battle  of  Borny  fought  under  the  walls  of  Metz,  otherwise 
called  of  Longueville.  Gallifet  is  reported  to  have  charged  the  enemy. 
Gallifet  is  a  brave  man,  and  I  always  liked  him  in  spite  of  his  swagger. 
It  used  to  be  a  fine  thing  to  see  him  play  tennis  with  Smijthe  of  our 
Embassy,  who  is  a  cool-headed  man  with  one  shoulder  higher  than  the 
other,  an  accident  which  gave  him  an  extraordinarily  heavy  cut  stroke  on 
the  floor,  most  exasperating  to  Gallifet,  who  is  a  wild  hitter.  Gallifet  plays 
well,  but  was  overmatched  by  Smijthe,  who  was  the  best  player  in  the 
tennis  court  three  years  ago.  Gallifet  used  to  call  out,  '  Ah  dites  done, 
M.  Smijthe,  vous  m'exasperez  avec  votre  damnee  patience;  tappez  done, 
M.  Smijthe.' 

"  I  have  been  talking  with  Julie.  She  tells  me  her  father  was  maire 
of  a  village  in  Brittany  and  her  uncle  a  bishop  murdered  at  the  altar 
during  the  revolution.  She  had  a  brother  older  than  herself  killed  in  the 
campaign  of  Russia  under  Bonaparte,  and  her  father  died  of  grief.  He 
left  her  a  dot  of  40,000  francs,  but  her  worthless  husband  ate  it  all.  She 
tells  me  that  we  have  a  mouchard  here  on  the  fifth  floor,  whose  wife  is  a 
chatterbox.  She  has  let  out  to  Julie  that  the  Empress  has  just  sent  the 
husband  to  England  with  her  jewels. 

''  igtli  Aug. —  General  Trochu  is  named  Commandant  of  Paris.  I  went 
yesterday  to  look  at  the  fortifications.  The  guns  on  the  walls  are  ridicu- 
lous old  pieces  such  as  my  Uncle  Toby  might  have  mounted  on  his  horn 
work.  I  was  sent  about  my  business  by  the  sergent-de-ville.  Carriages 
still  pass  into  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  over  a  narrow  plank  bridge.  The 
Germans  describe  the  battles  of  Borny  and  Gravelotte  as  victories,  and  say 
the  French  army  has  been  driven  back  into  Metz. 

"  2ist  Aug. —  Caen.  I  went  down  on  the  iQth  to  Deauville  by  train, 
where  I  found  Anne  much  better,  and  the  next  day,  yesterday,  we  drove 
here,  stopping  at  Dives  for  half  an  hour  to  see  the  church.  This  is  inter- 


400  Appendix  I 

esting  on  account  of  the  list  of  names  kept  there  of  those  knights  who 
followed  William  of  Normandy  to  England  in  1066.  I  counted  some 
seventy  names  of  families  still  existing  in  England,  among  them  the  Byrons, 
de  Buron.  Here  at  Caen  we  are  at  the  Hotel  d'Angleterre.  The  town  is 
full  of  conscripts,  some  in  blouses,  some  in  coats,  all  in  red  trousers,  young 
and  happy.  I  have  heard  more  singing  in  the  streets  here  these  two  nights 
than  during  all  the  last  fortnight  at  Paris. 

"  With  difficulty  I  procured  a  copy  of  the  Paris  '  Journal.'  Things  seem 
drifting  towards  a  quarrel  with  England.  The  '  Times,'  which  has  taken  a 
violent  side  for  Prussia  in  the  war  is  now  exasperating  the  French  with 
its  good  advice.  Now,  it  says,  is  the  moment  for  the  neutral  powers  to 
insist  on  peace.  I  expect  to  see  proposals  made  for  an  armistice,  to  be 
followed  by  peace  on  the  principle  of  the  status  quo  ante  bellum,  France 
to  retain  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  but  with  the  condition  of  immediate  dis- 
armament. If  such  be  accepted  tout  serait  sauve  fort  Vhonneur.  I  con- 
sider the  position  so  critical  that,  instead  of  going  to  Brittany  as  we 
intended,  we  start  to-morrow  for  the  north.  France,  if  she  quarrels  with 
England,  will  be  virtually  outlawed  and  fighting  for  her  life,  and  we 
cannot  expect  any  but  the  laws  of  necessity  to  rule  her.  Already  the  days 
are  being  recalled  to  mind  when  France  threw  defiance  in  the  face  of  all 
Europe  in  the  shape  of  10,000  heads  upon  her  scaffolds.  She  will  scarcely 
stop  to  distinguish  between  friend  and  foe,  but  I  trust  my  precautions  may 
not  be  needed.  The  French  army  may  yet  be  victorious,  and  the  '  Times  ' 
is  not  England,  but  who  can  say?  In  the  case  of  a  rupture  my  sympathies 
must  be  with  France,  but  I  am  bound  in  form  at  least  to  my  own  country. 

"  22nd  Aug. —  Pont  1'Eveque.  We  left  Caen  at  ten,  and  driving  on  got 
here  at  five,  having  stopped  three  hours  for  breakfast  at  Dozule,  our  inn 
there  the  White  Horse,  rustic,  but  good.  Another  capital  country  inn  here, 
the  Bras  d'or. 

"  The  news  to-night  is  bad,  none  for  two  days  from  Bazaine,  who  is 
shut  up  in  Metz.  A  letter  has  come  from  Lytton  in  Vienna,  who  expects 
nothing  but  disaster  for  the  French  army.  I  still  believe  the  Prussians 
will  be  driven  out  of  France.  Prussia  is  blockaded  and  nearly  bankrupt. 

"  2$th  Aug. —  On  the  night  of  the  23rd  we  slept  at  La  Bouille,  a  village 
on  the  Seine  to  which  Rouen  merchants  go  out  to  dine  on  summer  even- 
ings, and  yesterday  to  Rouen,  Hotel  de  France.  We  shall  have  to  wait  here 
two  days  until  our  carriage  wheels  have  been  new  tyred. 

"  The  news  to-day  is  better.  Communication  with  Bazaine  restored. 
Bazaine  declares  that  if  he  is  still  in  Metz  it  is  that  he  chooses  to  stay 
there.  The  news  from  Prussian  head-quarters  absolutely  contradicts  this. 
In  England  they  choose  to  believe  the  Prussian  account.  I  do  not. 
Neither  Bazaine  nor  Palikao  would  dare  in  the  present  state  of  France 
to  publish  news  directly  false.  The  position  of  Englishmen  in  France  is 
becoming  precarious,  indeed  of  any  person  without  visible  occupation. 
Prince  Lubomirsky  was  arrested  two  days  ago  as  a  spy,  and  many  quite 
innocent  people  have  been  mal-treated  by  the  mob.  I  shall  go  back  to 
Paris  for  a  night  to  see  how  things  are  going  on,  and  then  drive  to  Dieppe 
and  send  Anne  and  Miss  Noel  to  England. 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  401 

"  Strassburg  is  being  besieged.  There  was  a  report  yesterday  that  Phals- 
bourg  had  been  taken.  The  King  of  Prussia  has  appointed  Governors  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  as  Prussian  provinces. 

"s^th  Aug. —  Rouen.  I  have  been  again  to  Paris.  Going  up  in  the 
train  I  heard  another  spy  story.  The  man  who  told  it  seemed  to  be  a 
Rouen  merchant  and  the  victim  a  friend  from  the  country,  a  Normand,  a 
bel  homme  of  fifty  years.  He  had  asked  some  questions  about  the  mobiles 
in  front  of  the  barracks,  had  been  arrested  by  a  sergent-de-ville,  and  got 
his  clothes  torn  by  the  mob.  In  Paris  a  decree  has  been  issued  expelling 
'  les  bouches  inutiles.'  A  letter  in  the  '  Figaro '  asks  whether  the  ladies 
of  pleasure  may  be  properly  so  styled.  The  Government  has  answered 
the  question  seriously  by  sending  2,000  of  these  women  to  the  Conciergerie, 
ready  to  be  packed  off  at  a  moment's  notice. 

"  At  the  Embassy  I  found  them  in  little  anxiety.  Brinquant  is  not  yet 
ordered  off.  Webster,  the  old  Queen's  messenger  and  Philip  Currie's  boon 
companion,  is  dead.  Lord  Hertford  has  also  chosen  the  moment  to  die  at 
Bagatelle,  his  house  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne.  He  also  was  a  type,  the 
original  of  Thackeray's  Lord  Steyne.  He  remained  to  the  day  of  his 
death  a  patron  of  the  half  world,  and  has  left  illegitimate  children  and  no 
will  they  say.  He  was  fond  of  jokes,  d  la  Regence.  The  most  amusing 
of  them  was  connected  with  a  young  clergyman  he  had  engaged  as  chap- 
lain [but  I  forbear  transcribing  it].  His  Lordship  has  long  been  legen- 
daire  in  Paris,  yet  such  is  the  disturbance  in  the  public  mind,  his  death  is 
mentioned  without  special  comment  in  the  papers. 

"  The  Prussians  are  at  Chalons,  and  in  a  few  days,  unless  great  events 
happen,  must  be  in  front  of  Paris.  The  city  will  be  summoned  to  sur- 
render and  threatened  with  destruction  on  refusal.  The  army  is  far  away 
and  the  garrison  insufficient  for  defence.  The  Prussians  will  hardly 
postpone  a  bombardment,  and  it  is  possible  Paris  may  be  taken  by  storm 
and  burnt.  The  Crown  Prince,  who  is  believed  to  be  marching  in  advance, 
probably  counts  on  an  insurrection  as  soon  as  he  shall  make  his  appear- 
ance at  the  gates,  or  he  would  hardly  risk  so  desperate  an  adventure  with 
two  French  armies  in  his  rear.  The  Chamber  is  in  an  uproar,  Gambetta 
calling  for  news  of  the  army,  but  the  town  is  quiet  and  cheerful  and  the 
Parisians  seem  ready  to  do  their  duty.  Trochu  has  command  of  the  place. 
Edmond  About,  in  the  '  Soir,'  croaks  ominously.  He  has  been  in  the  jaws 
of  the  lion  and  dreads  its  teeth.  The  '  Gaulois  '  says  that  the  Emperor  is 
in  such  a  state  that  a  surprising  announcement  might  be  any  day  made. 
How  strange  it  is  to  remember  the  early  days  of  the  war  a  month  ago  when 
the  Empress  told  her  son  '  Va  done  mon  enfant  et  sois  digne  du  sang  des 
Bonapartes  et  des  Guzmans,'  and  when  the  train  was  out  of  sight,  '  Sa 
Majeste  redevint  femme.'  At  the  first  engagement  at  Saarbruck  we  were 
told:  '  Le  Prince  Imperiale  ne  se  laissa  nullement  impressioner ;  les  vieux 
soldats  le  voyant  si  calm  fondirent  en  larmes  .  .  .  Quand  commenca  la 
canonade  le  Prince  demanda  a  1'Empereur  "  Dites  done  papa  c'est  une  balle 
qui  siffle  aupres  de  nous,  ou  bien  un  boulet."  "  On  ne  peut  jamais  savior 
au  juste  mon  fils,"  repondit  1'Empereur.  .  .  .  Apres  la  defaite  de  1'ennemi 
le  Prince  Imperiale  presenta  au  jeune  Conneau  [his  favourite  playfellow] 


402  Appendix  I 

une  balle  qu'il  avait  ramassee  sur  le  champ  de  bataille.'  This  is  what 
the  '  Gaulois  '  used  to  tell  us. 

"  I  left  Paris  last  night,  looking  sorrowfully  on  the  Tuileries  and  its 
garden,  with  the  trees  brown  in  it  like  autumn.  The  sergent-de-ville  and 
the  sentinel  stood  as  usual  at  the  garden  gate,  the  fountain  played,  the  sun 
shone,  and  the  children  and  bonnes  chattered  as  though  the  world  were  not 
already  crumbling  about  their  ears.  Julie  is  left  with  orders  to  bring  away 
the  plate  and  pictures  in  case  of  the  worst,  and  I  shall  take  Anne  over  to 
England  and  then  come  back  if  the  siege  is  not  begun,  but  one  cannot 
foresee.  I  dream  every  night  of  armies  and  victories  and  defeats." 

This  was  my  last  visit  to  Paris  before  the  city  was  invested  by  the 
German  armies  and  the  siege  began. 

There  is  not  much  in  my  diary  worth  quoting  after  this.  Having  had 
our  carriage  wheels  new  tyred  we  drove  on  to  Dieppe,  arriving  there  2pth 
August,  in  heavy  rain,  to  find  the  whole  place  full  of  refugees.  "  There 
are  a  thousand  men  drilling  here  on  the  beach  in  blouses  with  a  red  cross 
on  their  left  sleeves.  I  am  struck  with  the  number  of  able-bodied  men 
one  sees  everywhere  idle,  although  the  whole  country  has  been  called  to 
arms.  Perhaps  there  is  a  want  of  weapons.  Dieppe  is  full  of  English 
who  affect  sympathy  with  Prussia.  General  Trochu  has  at  the  eleventh 
hour  ordered  all  the  Germans  out  of  Paris  within  three  days,  one  would 
have  expected  within  three  hours.  The  bombardment  of  Strassburg  has 
done  great  damage.  Kehl  has  been  burnt.  A  shell  burst  in  a  Pensionnat 
at  Strassburg  where  the  young  ladies  were  at  their  history  lesson.  Seven 
were  killed.  Phalsbourg  holds  out  bravely. 

"  $oth  Aug. —  Julie  has  just  arrived  from  Paris;  very  amusing  about  her 
troubles  in  getting  away.  The  Hotel  Meyerbeer,  where  I  used  in  former 
days  to  lodge,  has  been  sacked.  Some  Frenchmen  came  to  dine  there,  and 
the  landlord  (a  German),  seeing  them  out  at  elbows,  thought  fit  to  remark, 
'You  are  too  poor  to  dine  here.  I  have  just  got  an  order  from  the  King 
of  Prussia  for  a  dinner  of  ninety  covers  for  this  day  week.'  The  men, 
upon  .this,  fell  on  him  and  wrecked  his  house.  There  are  said  to  be  40,000 
Germans  in  Paris.  Our  Proprietaire,  M.  Desfontaines,  has  come  into  No. 
204  from  Noissy,  through  fear  of  the  invasion. 

"  3ist  Aug. —  The  Embassies  are  to  remain  at  Paris,  the  Empress  Regent 
having  declared  her  intention  of  remaining.  Princess  Mathilde  has  sent 
away  her  valuables,  as  have  probably  most  others  who  are  rich.  The 
heroism  of  non-combatants  in  Paris  will  be  shown  mainly  in  their  purses. 
I  go  to  England  to-morrow  to  see  Francis  [my  elder  brother],  who  starts 
shortly  on  his  way  back  to  Madeira. 

"2nd  Sept. —  At  Worth  Forest  Cottage.  The  '  Daily  News '  announces 
in  large  capitals,  '  Decisive  Battle,  MacMahon  totally  routed,'  and  prints 
a  telegram  from  William  to  Augusta :  '  May  God,  who  has  hitherto  be- 
friended us,  continue  his  protection  to  our  arms.'  I  felt  very  sick  and 
angry,  the  more  so  because  I  have  found  everybody  here  at  home  crowing 
over  this  final  result  of  the  war.  Awake  half  the  night,  thinking  bitter 
things  There  was  a  great  battle  before  Sedan  yesterday. 

"yd  Sept. —  Spent  the  morning   fishing  at   Cinderbanks.     On   coming 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  403 

in  I  heard  the  news  of  the  surrender  of  the  remains  of  the  French  army  by 
General  Wimpfen,  MacMahon's  second  in  command,  and  of  the  Emperor. 
Great  numbers  of  French  and  many  German  soldiers,  driven  on  to  Belgian 
soil,  have  laid  down  their  arms.  Count  Flahault,  one  of  the  last  men  of 
the  First  Empire,  died  yesterday.  Many  years  ago  he  eloped  to  Gretna 
Green  with  the  heiress  of  the  Keith  Barony,  and  always  after  Madame  de 
Flahault  came  to  England  for  her  couches,  so  that  her  children  should  be 
British  subjects,  and  her  son  have  a  right  to  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Lords. 

"  5/Jt  Sept. —  To  London  for  the  day,  and  saw  Philip  Currie  at  the 
Foreign  Office,  who  gave  me  an  alarming  account  of  the  disturbed  state  of 
France.  He  showed  me  a  letter  just  come  from  a  girl  who  was  governess 
at  a  French  chateau  in  the  south.  She  wrote  that  the  peasantry  were 
surrounding  the  house. 

"  6th  Sept. —  Back  to  Dieppe. 

"  8th  Sept. —  Crossed  back  again  with  Anne  to  Newhaven  in  a  gale  of 
wind.  We  were  thirteen  hours  at  sea,  and  ran  some  risk  of  being  driven 
on  to  Beachy  Head.  At  Newhaven  we  found  our  Swiss  horses,  and  drove 
on  to  Worth  Forest.  Before  leaving  Dieppe  I  sent  Julie  a  box  containing 
100  Ib.  of  ship's  biscuits,  with  a  letter  of  instructions  as  to  her  conduct 
during  the  siege.  I  also  offered  my  apartment  to  the  tnaire  as  an  ambu- 
lance, but  my  proprietor  refused  his  consent.  [The  biscuits  fortunately 
reached  Julie  just  before  communication  with  Paris  ceased,  and  proved  a 
Godsend  to  her  during  the  four  months  the  siege  lasted.  My  cousin, 
Francis  Currie,  whom,  though  I  have  said  nothing  about  him  in  my  diary, 
I  had  seen  constantly  during  my  last  weeks  at  Paris,  making  our  specula- 
tions on  the  course  of  events  together,  remained  on  quietly  in  his  rooms 
in  the  Palais  Royal  right  through  both  siege  and  Commune,  continuing 
his  philosophic  occupation,  the  pursuit  of  pleasure,  without  disturbance 
or  much  hardship.  I  should  have  stayed  on  with  him,  but  for  my  wife's 
expected  confinement,  and  seen  the  drama  out.  It  was  an  opportunity 
missed  I  still  regret.] 

"  2$th  Sept. —  Since  my  return  to  England  I  have  not  read  a  newspaper, 
nor  shall  till  peace  is  made." 

A  few  extracts  from  letters,  written  me  just  then  by  my  friend  Robert 
Lytton,  dealing  with  public  events,  may  here  be  added.  He  was  at  the 
time  first  Secretary  of  Embassy  at  Vienna,  but  on  leave  in  England,  and 
in  close  touch  with  all  our  chief  diplomatists. 

"nth  Sept.,  1870. —  Knebworth.  I  am  very  doubtful  as  to  the  Germans 
claiming  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  but  if  they  do  claim  it,  it  will  be  baseless, 
abominable,  unprecedented,  and  irredeemable  should  England  stand  by 
quiescent  while  her  boasted  ally  of  yesterday  is  being  dismembered.  Yet 
a  colleague  whom  I  met  yesterday,  fresh  from  the  Foreign  Office,  told  me 
the  Government  is  firmly  resolved  to  do  nothing,  and  does  not  seem  to 
think  the  situation  worth  a  Cabinet  Council.  We  shall  pay  dearly  and 
perhaps  more  than  we  can  afford  by  and  by  for  the  excessive  prudence  of 


404  Appendix  I 

our  present  policy,  which  is,  I  am  told,  strongly  recommended  by  Lyons, 
who  is  afraid  of  burning  his  fingers  and  losing  his  reputation  as  a  safe 
man.  France  will,  of  course,  be  thrown  into  the  arms  of  Russia,  and 
sell  her  support  in  the  East  for  a  European  alliance  of  Vengeance  on  her 
faithless  friend  across  the  Channel." 

I  remember  that  my  own  feeling  at  the  time  about  Alsace  Lorraine  was 
one  of  rejoicing  that  the  Germans,  whom  I  hated,  should  have  let  slip  an 
opportunity  of  high-minded  moderation  which  would  have  redoubled  the 
glory  of  their  victories.  While  at  Worth  Forest  with  my  brother  Francis, 
we  used  to  argue  the  French  and  the  German  case,  he  strongly  main- 
taining against  me  that  the  French  defeat  had  delivered  Europe  from  its 
chief  danger.  Germany,  he  thought,  could  never  be  a  serious  menace. 

"  yd,  Oct.,  1870. —  Ormeskirk.  Odo  Russell  [our  Ambassador  at 
Berlin]  who  sees  all  the  despatches  now  as  soon  as  they  arrive,  and  is 
therefore  a  good  authority,  writes  to  his  wife,  who  is  here,  that  Bismarck 
has  intimated  to  us  his  intention  of  eventually,  after  taking  Paris  I 
suppose,  sending  the  Emperor  back  to  France  with  a  slice  of  Belgium  by 
way  of  a  letter  of  recommendation  to  the  French  people.  You  may  fancy 
how  this  has  fluttered  our  Downing  Street  dovecote.  I  can  myself  hardly 
believe  the  story,  but  if  Bismarck  really  does  play  off  this  practical  joke  on 
us  what  a  reductio  ad  absurdum  it  will  be  of  the  lauded  prudence  of  the 
Gladstone  Cabinet  in  regard  to  that  absurd  Belgian  treaty.  Odo  adds  that 
Bismarck  wishes  to  keep  Bazaine  locked  up  in  Metz  with  the  whole 
garrison  till  the  end  of  the  war,  but  not  to  attack  them  or  destroy  them, 
because  it  is  his  wish  to  hand  over  to  the  Emperor  at  the  end  as  large  a 
remnant  as  can  yet  be  saved  of  the  Imperial  army.  Meanwhile  Russia 
is  certainly  arming  fast,  and  the  Russian  merchants  in  the  city  have 
already  created  a  panic  there  by  their  expressed  apprehension,  which 
seems  to  me  perfectly  well  founded  that  she  is  about  to  attack  Turkey.  I 
take  it  that  whenever  she  pleases  Russia  can  do  this  with  perfect  impu- 
nity and  success." 

"^th  Oct.,  1870. —  Knebworth.  In  connection  with  the  story  I  men- 
tioned in  my  last,  Odo  says  that  Bismarck  avers  that,  although  it  is  neces- 
sary to  keep  Bazaine  safe  in  Metz,  he  is  anxious,  if  possible,  not  to  starve 
or  otherwise  destroy  the  army  shut  up  in  that  town,  in  order  that  at  the 
end  of  the  war  he  may  hand  over  to  the  Emperor  as  much  as  can  be 
spared  of  the  Imperial  forces  for  the  preservation  of  order  in  France. 
However,  I  still  disbelieve  the  story.  In  a  letter  which  Lady  Emily 
received  from  her  husband  the  day  I  left  Lathom,  he  said:  'The  French 
Government  has  again  for  the  third,  and  it  says  for  the  last  time  made  a 
most  earnest  and  pathetic  appeal  to  us  as  the  old  friends  and  allies  of 
France  to  come  to  the  rescue,  to  which  we  have  replied  by  a  long  despatch 
to  the  effect  that  we  pity  France,  but  can't  help  her.  This  document  is  a 
very  painful  one  to  read,  and  it  is  one  which  I  am  certain  your  dear  father 
[Lord  Clarendon]  would  never  have  written.' 

"  Lady  Cowley,  who  did  not  go  to  see  the  Emperor  at  the  request  of  the 
Empress  but  on  her  own  hook  from  Frankfort,  said  he  was  looking  in 


My  Paris  Diary  of  1870  405 

much  better  health  than  she  expected  to  nnd  mm,  that  fie  seemed  deeply 
mortified  by  the  abuse  of  the  French  Press,  but  maintained  that  he  was 
still  the  favourite  of  the  French  people,  and  seemed  to  count  on  returning 
to  the  Tuileries.  The  Empress  wrote  him  a  most  insulting  and  heartless 
letter  calling  him  a  '  lache'  the  receipt  of  which  was  the  occasion  of  that 
fainting  fit  which  gave  rise  to  the  rumour  of  his  attempted  suicide.  He 
told  Lady  Cowley  that  he  was  literally  without  a  sixpence.  Grammont, 
who  has  been  staying  with  Lord  Malmesbury,  declares  this  to  be  perfectly 
true,  and  that  the  utmost  the  Emperor's  few  remaining  friends  hope  to  be 
able  to  make  up  for  him  is  £1,200  a  year.  The  Empress,  I  believe,  has 
some  fortune  of  her  own,  but  they  are  on  the  worst  possible  terms.  I  hope 
I  shall  soon  be  able  to  invite  myself  to  Worth  as  Lady  Cowley  invited  her- 
self to  Wilhelmshohe. 

"  Did  you  see  that  the  French  papers,  learning  from  the  English  Press 
that  the  Prussians  were  supplied  with  the  best  information  from  their  gen- 
eral staff,  exclaimed  in  chorus :  '  Nous  savons  maintenant  qui  est  cet  espion 
qui  a  fourni  aux  Prussiens  tant  de  precieux  renseignements ;  c'est  M.  le 
General  Staff,  homme  d'une  astuce  remarquable.' " 


END   OF    MY   PARIS   DIARY   OF    1870 


APPENDIX  II 

Memorandum  as  to  the  Evacuation  of  Egypt 

The  evacuation  of  Egypt  is  a  question  partly  of  honour,  partly  of  pru- 
dence. Of  honour,  in  view  of  the  pledges  given;  of  prudence  on  military 
grounds. 

If  Egypt  could  be  held  honourably  and  without  risk  of  war,  there  is 
much  to  be  said  in  favour  of  continuing  the  English  protectorate.  It  se- 
cures our  Mediterranean  route  to  India  at  a  small  cost.  Its  prestige  to  us 
is  of  value,  and  we  should  be  spared  the  discredit  of  a  withdrawal  under 
French  pressure.  We  owe  it,  too,  to  the  Egyptians,  whose  army  and  polit- 
ical aspirations  we  destroyed  in  1882,  to  continue  to  them  our  assistance 
in  their  weakness  as  against  other  Powers. 

Nevertheless  the  risks  appear  to  me  great.  Egypt's  position  on  the 
Suez  Isthmus  is  too  important  geographically  to  be  allowed  permanently 
to  any  one  European  Power  by  the  rest  of  the  Powers.  It  stands  marked 
out  for  neutrality  as  between  them,  and  France  will  certainly  not  consent 
to  our  holding  it  permanently  without  a  war.  As  a  question  of  near  dan- 
ger I  have  reason  to  feel  sure  that  a  complete  agreement  has  been  come  to 
between  France  and  the  Sultan  (probably,  too,  the  Czar)  regarding  it, 
and  that  the  return  of  the  Liberal  Party  to  office  in  England  will  determine 
their  joint  action. 

It  is  therefore  of  some  urgency  to  consider  whether  we  are  strong 
enough  by  land  and  sea  to  refuse  at  all  hazards. 

I  agree  entirely  with  Mr.  Gladstone  when  he  hopes  that  Lord  Salisbury 
rather  than  himself  may  negotiate  the  evacuation.  Mr.  Gladstone's  posi- 
tion abroad  will  be  weak,  as  he  will  be  without  cordial  support  from  the 
Central  Powers,  while  his  position  in  honour  towards  France  will  be  ham- 
pered by  his  many  pledges.  Lord  Salisbury  could  get  better  terms  for  the 
Egyptians,  and  would  be  less  likely  to  sacrifice  them  to  the  exigencies  of 
European  diplomacy. 

I  believe  an  evacuation  might  be  effected  on  one  or  other  of  the  fol- 
lowing lines: 

(i)  The  simplest  and  most  expeditious  plan  would  probably  be  to  hand 
over  the  military  responsibility  to  the  Sultan.  This  would  have  the  advan- 
tage of  postponing  the  ultimate  question.  It  would  place  Egypt,  as  regards 
European  ambitions,  under  whatever  degree  of  integrity  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire enjoys.  Ottoman  troops  could  certainly  guard  her  southern  frontier 
and  prevent  surprise  from  other  quarters.  England,  this  quarrel  about 
Egypt  settled,  would  then  revert  to  her  former  friendly  relations  with  Tur- 
key, and  in  the  event  of  a  break-up  of  the  Empire  would  be  free  to  take 

406 


Memorandum  as  to  the  Evacuation  of  Egypt  407 

whatever  steps  her  interests  required.  As  regards  Egyptian  opinion,  I  be- 
lieve that  on  the  whole  it  would  be  not  unfavourable  to  such  a  solution. 
There  is  no  love  for  the  Turks  among  the  fellahin,  but  the  Sultan's  au- 
thority would  be  accepted  by  them  as  natural  and  legal,  while  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  Khedivial  rule  is  also  Turkish.  The  Sultan,  indeed, 
might  be  expected  to  protect  in  some  measure  the  Arabic-speaking  popula- 
tion against  a  renewal  of  oppression  by  the  Turkish  Circassian  Pashas, 
and,  in  any  case,  he  would  be  jealous  in  their  favour  of  European  aggres- 
sion. 

No  administrative  interference,  however,  need  be  conceded  if  the  trans- 
fer of  military  protection  be  made  under  agreement.  It  is  probable  that,  if 
the  right  claimed  for  England  in  the  Wolff  Convention  of  ultimate  inter- 
vention were  withdrawn,  France  and  Russia  would  not  oppose  such  a 
solution. 

(2)  A  better  plan,  if  honestly  attempted  by  England,  and  as  honestly 
accepted  by  the  Powers,  would  be  to  re-establish  the  National  Government 
on  liberal  and  progressive  lines,  under  guarantee  of  neutrality. 

Although  much  time  and  opportunity  have  been  wasted  during  our  nine 
years  of  occupation  in  repressing  political  life  among  the  Egyptians,  I  am 
still  of  opinion  that  something  in  the  shape  of  Constitutional  Government 
would  give  them  their  best  chance  of  permanent  independence  and  progress 
as  a  race.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  1882  a  Constitution  on  a  Euro- 
pean model  (decree  of  March,  1882)  was  obtained  by  the  Egyptian  Na- 
tional Party,  which  gave  considerable  promise  of  efficiency  as  a  means  of 
asserting  native  right  against  both  the  Turkish  ruling  caste  and  the  Euro- 
pean colonists.  If  it  had  not  been  put  down  by  England's  armed  interven- 
tion, it  would  in  all  likelihood  have  given  a  new  impulse  of  progress  not 
only  to  Egypt,  but  to  the  surrounding  Mohammedan  lands.  I  am  of  opin- 
ion that  even  yet  its  restoration  at  Cairo  would  have  this  effect,  and  is  not 
impossible.  The  National  Constitutional  Party,  though  broken  as  an  or- 
ganization, exists  in  the  individuals  who  composed  it,  and  in  younger  men 
of  a  new  generation  holding  similar  ideas.  From  among  these  a  Ministry 
could  be  formed  to  set  the  Constitutional  machine  in  motion  under  sympa- 
thetic English  auspices,  nor  do  I  doubt  that  within  a  couple  of  years  it 
would  be  found  competent  to  conduct  the  business  of  the  country  without 
further  military  aid.  It  is  by  men  of  this  party  alone  that  Sir  Evelyn 
Baring's  better  work  in  Egypt  is  appreciated,  and  it  is  only  to  their  hands 
that  the  work  of  continuing  it  could  be  reasonably  entrusted. 

Unfortunately  for  such  a  solution,  the  Constitutional  idea  finds  many 
adverse  influences  under  present  conditions.  The  Khedive  and  the  Turk- 
ish Party,  which  we  have  replaced  in  office,  are  wholly  opposed  to  it.  The 
European  officials  representing  financial  interests  consider  any  form  of 
popular  government  less  manageable  by  them  than  the  present  absolute 
regime.  And  Sir  Evelyn  Baring  would  as  little  approve.  Lastly  —  and 
this  is  perhaps  the  greatest  obstacle  —  the  French  and  foreign  policy 
generally  in  the  East  desires  nothing  so  little  as  to  see  a  genuine  resuscita- 
tion of  political  vitality  among  the  native  races.  Under  the  present  des- 
potic yet  feeble  regime,  France  counts  on  succeeding  England  in  controlling 


408  Appendix  II 

a  weak  prince  and  weaker  people  until  such  time  as  Egypt  may  fall  to  her 
share  of  the  Ottoman  spoils. 

The  attempt,  therefore,  if  made  at  all,  must  be  made  honestly  and  with 
the  thoroughgoing  support  of  a  sympathetic  English  representative,  other- 
wise it  cannot  but  fail. 

(3)  The  third  solution  of  placing  Egypt  under  joint  European  guardian- 
ship and  political  control,  is  one  against  which,  however  it  may  recommend 
itself  as  a  settlement  of  European  differences,  I  feel  bound  to  protest  in 
native  Egyptian  interests. 

Under  English  rule  the  native  populations  have  been  carefully  protected, 
and  their  rights  maintained  against  the  encroachment  of  foreign  colonists. 
But  under  any  other  European  rule  than  England's  the  reverse  would  cer- 
tainly be  the  case.  Egypt  under  French  or  Italian  or  joint  European  con- 
trol would  be  exploited  in  whatever  direction  it  was  thought  that  revenue 
could  be  best  increased.  The  fellahin  now  enjoying  their  hereditary  lands 
would  be  speedily  dispossessed  and  reduced  to  a  practical  slavery  worse 
than  any  they  have  hitherto  known,  and  as  a  race  would  probably  be  little 
by  little  displaced,  the  demoralized,  and  extirpated. 

As  already  remarked,  the  fellahin  in  1882,  alarmed  at  this  very  danger 
under  the  Anglo-French  control,  had  asserted  themselves  politically  and 
forced  their  rulers  to  grant  them  a  means  of  self-defence  in  the  form  of  a 
Constitutional  Government.  They  had  acquired  the  support  of  a  large 
army  with  sufficient  prestige  to  deter  attack  from  more  than  one  of  the 
Powers,  and  they  were  backed  by  much  sympathy  east  and  west  in  their 
attempted  reforms.  Having  for  our  own  reasons  suppressed  all  these  pos- 
sibilities of  good  for  them,  it  would  be  a  supreme  injustice  to  overlook  their 
interests  now  in  the  settlement  to  be  made.  To  Mr.  Gladstone  especially, 
who  is  so  largely  responsible  for  the  intervention,  it  should  be  a  matter  of 
honourable  concern  that  this  race  and  people  should  not  perish. 

(4)  To   withdraw   the   British   garrison   under  present   conditions   and 
without  a  political  settlement  would  be  to  court  future  difficulties. 

Sir  Evelyn  Baring's  policy  of  the  last  five  years,  based  as  it  has  been 
on  the  view  that  Egypt  was  to  remain  a  permanent  annex  of  the  Indian 
Empire,  has  practically  destroyed  all  authority  there  but  that  of  the  Eng- 
lish Occupation.  Egypt's  present  government  is  a  mixed  European,  Ar- 
menian, and  native  bureaucracy  controlled  by  half-a-dozen  Englishmen 
with  the  British  garrison  at  their  back.  No  native  government  in  any 
sense  of  authority  exists.  The  Khedive,  indolent  and  without  initiative,  is 
a  mere  dummy  Prince.  His  Ministers,  most  of  them  Turks  of  advanced 
years,  have  been  chosen  for  their  pliancy  rather  than  their  ability.  Their 
names  have  no  weight,  and  their  duties  are  little  more  than  to  sign  without 
reading  the  documents  placed  before  them.  The  great  departments  of  Fi- 
nance, Irrigation,  War,  and  latterly  Justice,  are  directed  by  Englishmen. 
The  army  and  police  have  English  superior  officers;  and  even  the  Interior 
is,  I  believe,  in  process  of  being  taken  over  by  us. 

This  Anglicized  condition  of  the  Government  could  not  long  survive  a 
withdrawal  of  the  English  troops.  Even  were  it  consented  to  by  France, 
it  would  rapidly  lose  its  authority.  English  control,  though  not  unpopular 


Memorandum  as  to  the  Evacuation  of  Egypt  409 

with  the  fellahin,  is  disliked  by  every  class  in  Cairo  and  the  towns,  and 
would  at  once  be  the  object  of  attack,  open  or  secret. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  the  Khedive  attached  to  English  influence,  or 
to  be  depended  on  in  any  way  to  support  it.  On  the  contrary,  while  lean- 
ing on  English  support  these  last  ten  years  he  has  deeply  resented  the 
usurpation  of  his  authority,  and  the  many  indignities  he  has  been  made  to 
accept.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  seeing  French  influence  in  the  as- 
cendant, he  would  secretly  favour  the  intrigues  which  would  be  begun 
against  the  English  commands  in  the  Army  and  the  English  Civil  officials. 
A  couple  of  years  would  thus  see  the  downfall  of  the  whole  structure  of 
English  influence  so  elaborately  reared.  In  the  absence  of  any  native  po- 
litical organization  in  the  country  its  government  would  then  become  prac- 
tically French ;  and  this  is  doubtless  what  the  French  Foreign  Office  counts 
upon.  I  deprecate  such  a  result  both  for  English  interests,  and  especially 
for  the  Egyptians  for  the  reasons  already  given. 

Such,  I  take  it,  are  the  various  lines  on  which  evacuation  could  be  ef- 
fected. If  the  Liberal  Party  is  prepared  with  a  definite  plan  by  which 
Egypt  could  be  provided  with  a  satisfactory  Government  preparatory  to 
withdrawing  our  troops  under  settlement  with  the  Sultan  and  Powers,  I 
think  its  leaders  do  well  to  press  evacuation  on  public  attention.  But  it  is 
idle  for  them  to  entertain  the  idea  that  any  such  Government  has  been  al- 
ready formed,  or  even  that  a  first  step  in  that  direction  has  been  already 
taken.  Sir  Evelyn  Baring's  policy  is  entirely  one  of  remaining  in  Egypt, 
and  each  year  sees  more  and  more  authority  placed  in  English  hands.  Oth- 
erwise I  see  no  alternative  but  to  re-establish  the  Sultan's  military  author- 
ity, or  to  brave  the  danger  of  European  complications,  as  Lord  Salisbury 
will  doubtless  do,  and  remain.  An  English  protectorate  would  be  a  lesser 
evil  to  the  Egyptians  than  any  form  of  European  Joint  Control. 

WILFRID  SCAWEN  BLUNT. 

Paris,  Nov.  5,  1891. 

N.B.  This  memorandum  was  written  for  Lytton  while  staying  at  the 
Paris  Embassy,  but  I  am  not  sure  whether  he  ever  read  it,  for  he  was 
lying  on  his  death  bed.  Edwin  Egerton,  however,  then  first  Secretary  and 
charge  d'affaires  of  the  Embassy,  highly  approved  of  it  —  so  much  so  that 
he  gave  a  copy  of  it  to  Blowitz,  who  sent  it  to  the  "  Times,"  where  it  may 
be  found,  though  not  quite  in  its  full  text. 

W.  S.  B. 


APPENDIX  III 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  to  Mr.  Blunt 
[Reed.  October  4,  1898] 

5,  Percival  Terrace, 

Brighton. 
DEAR  SIR, 

For  some  years  I  have  been  casting  about  for  a  poet  who  might  fitly 
undertake  a  subject  I  very  much  want  to  see  efficiently  dealt  with.  At  one 
time  I  thought  of  proposing  it  to  Mr.  Robert  Buchanan,  who,  in  respect 
of  vigour  of  expression  and  strength  of  moral  indignation  seemed  appro- 
priate, but  I  concluded  that  the  general  feeling  with  regard  to  him  would 
prevent  a  favourable  reception  —  would,  in  fact,  tend  very  much  to  can- 
cel the  effect  produced.  Afterwards  the  name  of  Mr.  William  Watson 
occurred  to  me  as  one  who  had  shown  feelings  of  the  kind  I  wished  to  see 
expressed.  But  admirable  as  much  of  his  poetry  is,  the  element  of  power 
is  not  marked;  he  does  not  display  a  due  amount  of  burning  sarcasm. 
Your  recent  letter  in  "  The  Times,"  and  since  then  a  review  in  "  The 
Academy,"  in  which  there  were  quotations  from  your  poem,  "  The  Wind 
and  the  Whirlwind,"  lead  me  to  hope  that  you  may  work  out  the  idea 
I  refer  to. 

This  idea  is  suggested  by  the  first  part  of  Goethe's  "  Faust " — "  The  Pro- 
logue in  Heaven,"  I  think  it  is  called.  In  this,  if  I  remember  rightly  (it  is 
now  some  fifty  years  since  I  read  it),  Mephistopheles  obtains  permission  to 
tempt  Faust:  the  drama  being  thereupon  initiated.  Instead  of  this  I  sug- 
gest an  interview  and  dialogue  in  which  Satan  seeks  authority  to  find  some 
being  more  wicked  than  himself,  with  the  understanding  that  if  he  succeeds 
this  being  shall  take  his  place.  The  test  of  wickedness  is  to  be  the  degree 
of  disloyalty  —  the  degree  of  rebellion  against  divine  government. 

Satan  gives  proof  that  his  rebellion  has  been  less  flagitious  than  that  of 
men. 

He  confesses  to  having  been  a  rebel,  but  an  avowed  one. 

He  has  not,  like  men,  professed  to  worship  the  Christian  God  while  per- 
petually worshipping  the  pagan  gods ;  he  has  not  day  by  day  sacrificed  with 
zeal  to  Thor  and  Odin,  while  nominally  sacrificing  to  Jehova. 

He  is  not  like  men  who,  tepidly  joining  in  praises  of  Christ  as  a  model 
on  one  day  in  the  week,  on  the  other  six  days  bring  up  their  sons  in 
glowing  admiration  of  blood-stained  Homeric  heroes. 

He  is  not  like  men  who,  nominally  admitting  on  Sunday  that  forgiveness 
is  a  virtue,  emphatically  insist  on  and  practice  on  all  other  days  the  duty  of 
blood-revenge. 

410 


Herbert  Spencer's  Letter  411 

He  has  never  done  like  men  who,  professing  the  Christian  principle  of 
submitting  to  injuries,  ridicule  as  idiots  the  few  Christians  who  propose  to 
act  on  that  principle. 

He  has  not,  while  professing  to  relinquish  the  savage  law  of  retaliation 
—  a  life  for  a  life  —  adopted  the  far  more  savage  law  —  for  one  life  many 
lives. 

Satan  goes  on  to  urge  that  he  has  never  with  rebellion  joined  perpetual 
insults  as  men  have  done. 

I  have  never  turned  your  churches  of  mercy  into  pagan  temples  by  hang- 
ing up  in  them  the  torn  flags  of  conquered  peoples. 

I  have  never  blasphemed  by  thanking  you  for  aiding  in  mowing  down 
tens  of  thousands  of  men  who  worshipped  you  under  another  name. 

I  have  never  blasphemed  by  calling  you  Omniscient  while  ascribing  to 
you  unutterable  stupidity  —  the  stupidity  of  being  ready  to  accept  perpetual 
professions  of  obedience  as  sufficient  to  cancel  perpetual  acts  of  absolute 
disobedience :  being  so  pleased  with  laudations,  prayers,  and  obeisances  as 
to  overlook  the  contemptuous  disregard  of  peremptory  commands. 

THE  REPLY 

If  while  sacrificing  to  me  in  name  men  have  sacrificed  to  Pagan  gods  in 
act,  it  is  your  doing.  You  have  betrayed  them  into  this  rebellion.  Only  by 
your  delusions  has  it  been  possible  to  make  them  think  that  I  should  accept 
words  in  place  of  deeds.  Joined  though  it  is  with  lying  and  hypocrisy,  the 
rebellion  of  these  beings  is  not  worse  than  your  rebellion,  because  you  have 
prompted  it. 

SATAN 

But  if  I  deceived  them  it  was  only  because  they  wished  to  be  deceived. 
They  wished  to  gratify  their  revenge  while  having  the  blessings  promised 
to  those  who  forgive. 

REPLY 
You  cannot  be  pardoned. 

SATAN 

But  may  I  mete  out  their  punishments  according  to  their  own  measure? 
They  ask  to  be  forgiven  their  sins  as  they  forgive  the  sins  of  others. 
May  I  torture  them  in  proportion  to  their  unforgiveness?  For  every  time 
they  have  professed  the  religion  of  love  and  practised  the  religion  of  hate, 
may  I  thrust  them  a  step  lower  down  in  hell? 

Might  not  some  ^such  ideas  as  these,  presented  with  power,  produce  con- 
siderable effects  upon  a  few  men,  though  not  perhaps  on  many? 

I  am  faithfully  yours, 

HERBERT  SPENCER. 

END  OF  APPENDICES 


INDEX  TO  VOLUME  I 


Abbas  II,  Khedive  of  Egypt,  63,  64, 
84-93,  97,  98,  101,  108,  no,  113,  116- 
131,  134-138,  141,  142,  144,  165-168, 
195,  207,  208,  210-213,  218-223,  242- 
244,  246,  247,  268,  271,  277,  285,  286, 
363,  366,  368,  369,  374 

Abdallah,  the  Khalifa  of  Omdurman, 
13,  126,  196,  201,  219,  242,  287,  296, 
305,  34i,  342 

Abdu,  Sheykh  Mohammed,  afterwards 
Grand  Mufti  of  Egypt,  31,  45,  48, 
49,  64,  90,  91,  97,  122,  125,  135,  138, 
166,  206,  209,  214,  219-221,  225,  243- 
247,  277,  285,  288,  289,  338,  343,  344, 
346,  347,  349,  374 

Abdul  Hamid,  Ottoman  Sultan,  96,  99, 
100,  102,  105,  113,  119-121,  123,  127, 
133,  142,  168,  190,  206-208,  215,  227, 
239,  244,  246,  277,  278,  285,  305,  306, 
309 

Abdullah  Pasha  Nedj,  Ibn  Thenneyan 
Ibn  Saoud,  93,  105,  206,  209,  211 

Abu  Naddara,  see  Sanua 

Abdul  Huda,  Sheykh,  206,  209,  285 

Achmetega,  7,  8 

Afghan  Frontier,  283 

Afridis,  The,  285 

dfrits,  36 

Albania,  9 

Alexandra,  Queen,  382 

AH  Bey  Kamel,  95 

AH  Pasha  Sherif,  166,  167,  210,  245 

Alsace-Lorraine,  4,  21,  305,  401,  403,  404 

Amir  AH,  80 

Anglo-Japanese  Alliance,  290,  291 

Animals,  rights  of,  343,  346 

Aosta,  Duchess  of,  see  Helene,  Prin- 
cess of  Paris 

Aosta,  Duke  of,  170,  171 

Arabi  Pasha,  4,  12,  16,  17,  30,  31,  32, 
45,  54,  74,  75,  80,  93-95,  193,  198,  203, 
209,  219,  223,  250,  363 

Armenia,  103,  106,  173,  185-192,  214,  215, 

219,  238,  239,  244 

Asqnith,  H.  H.,  M.  P.,  72,  117,  140,  141, 
145.  146 

Asquith,  Margot,  (Formerly  Margot 
Tennant),  63,  69,  72,  75,  76,  83,  no, 
in,  140,  141,  145,  170,  230,  231,  314 

Athens,  7,  8,  08 


Austin,  Alfred,  Poet  Laureate,  144,  212, 

214,  279,  280,  369 
Australia,  321 
Automobiles,  371 

Baggaras  tribe,  the,  196 

Balfour,  Rt.  Honble.  Arthur  James,  M. 
P*  22,  53,  54,  72,  281,  290,  291,  322- 
324 

Balfour,  Rt.  Honble.  Gerald,  M.  P.,  60, 
70,  172 

Bannerman,  Rt.  Honble.  Campbell,  M. 
P.,  322,  323 

Baring  financial  crisis,  54 

Baring,  Sir  Evelyn,  see  Cromer 

Barre,  celebrated  French  tennis  cham- 
pion, 396,  397 

Beauclerk,  Father,  300,  301 

Bedouins,  The,  221 

Belgian  treaty,  404 

Benedetti,  M.,  French  Ambassador  at 
Berlin,  388,  389 

Berbers,  The,  200,  201,  219 

Berlin,  Congress  of,  109 

Bernhardt  Sarah,  102,  103 

Bismarck,  Prince,  10,  18,  238,  295,  305, 
381,  382,  388,  389,  404 

Bizerta,  155 

Bloemfontein,  326 

Blunt,  General  Walter,  Pasha,  A.  D.  C. 
to  the  Sultan,  101,  187,  189 

Boer  War,  327,  328,  331-336,  34O,  34L 
344,  346,  347,  350,  351,  365,  368,  372, 
375,  376,  see  also  Transvaal 

Boulanger,  General,,  2,  3,  4,  20,  57 

Bourke,  Honble.  Algernon,  see  "But- 
ton" 

Bourke,  Honble.  Terence,  153-159 

Boutros  Pasha,  312 

Bowen,  Sir  George,  89,  90 

Brand,  Harry,  sec  Hampden 

Brandes,  Georg,  232 

Branicka,  Countess,   181,   182,   183 

Brewster,  Bey,  Khedive  Abbas'  private 
secretary,  130,  131 

"Bride  of  the  Nile,"  113 

British  Empire,  212,  214,  233,  285,  288, 
290,  311,  333.  34.2,  344.  375,  376 

Broadwood,  Captain,  afterwards  Gen- 
eral, 127,  128,  199,  200,  201 

Browning,  Letters  of  Mrs.,  373 


413 


Index 


Buckle,   George  Earle,   Editor  of   the 

"Times,"  226,  328 
Budge.  Dr.,  .332 
Bulgaria,  179 
Buller,  General  Sir  Redvers,  333,  334, 

346,  350,  366 
Bulwer's  Island,  185 
Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward,  67,  ill,  229, 

240,  294,  315 
Burton,  Sir  Richard,  292 
"Button,"    Honble.    Algernon    Bourke, 

278,  296,  366 

Cambon,    M.,    French    Ambassador   in 

London,  308,  309,  314 
Canterbury  Cathedral,  232 
Carthage,  Site  of,  154 
Castletown,  Lord  and  Lady,  77,  78 
Chamberlain,   Rt.   Honble.  Joseph,  M. 

P.,  211,  218,  222,  226,  278,  280,  281, 

3o6,  322,  325,  327,  332,  350,  351,  372 
Chess,  156 

"Chibine"  wreck  of,  352-361 
China,  369,  375 
Churchill,  Lord  Randolph,  M.   P.,  31, 

50,  52,  97,  142 
Churchill,  Rt.  Honble  Winston,  M.  P., 

321,  322 
Cisterna,  28 
Clarendon,  Lord,  385 
Coal  War,  116 
Cockerell,    Sidney,   293,  294,   35 i,  352, 

358,  365 
Cogordan,     M.,     French     Minister    at 

Cairo,  209,  215,  287,  364 
Congo,  The,  376 
Constantinople,  see  also  Abdul  Hamid, 

98,  184,  187,  190 
Convention,  the  Drummond  Wolf,  12, 

58,  60,  102,  109.  173,  185,  407 
Coup  d'etat  (Egypt)  86,  87,  125 
Crabbet  Club,  The,  41,  42,  68,  112,  145, 

375 

Crete,  296 

Crispi  Signer,  217,  365 

Cromer,  Lord,  (now  Earl  Cromer — 
formerly  Sir  Evelyn  Baring),  n,  17, 
30,  31,  34,  35,  43-50,  61-64,  72,  76,  82, 
84-95,  97,  98,  107-110,  116,  118-120, 
124-126,  128-132,  135-138,  141,  165, 
204-206,  211-213,  218-224,  227,  244- 
247,  285,  288,  307,  3io,  312,  313,  324, 
334,  344,  347,  350,  362,  363,  407-409 

Currie,  Francis  Gore,  2,  43,  383,  403 

Currie,  Sir  Philip,  afterwards  Lord 
Ambassador  at  Constantinople,  112, 
184-186,  188,  189,  191,  215,  231 


Curzon,  Honble.  George,  afterwards 
Earl  Curzon  of  Kedleston,  58,  112, 
173,  308 

Cust,  Harry,  M.  P.,  42,  no,  171,  231, 
308,  326 

Dalmatia,  Parties  in,  18 

Dawkins,   Financial  Adviser,  224 

Delcasse,  M.,  306,  309 

Delta  of  the  Nile,  374 

Dervishes,  200,  205,  210,  296 

Desert  Journeys,  168,  216,  248-275 

DeVere,  Aubrey,  337 

Dilke,  Rt.  Honble.  Sir  Charles,  M.  P., 

108 

Dillon,  John,  M.  P.,  in,  325,  348 
Dongola,  193,  201,  205,  206,  220-224,  231, 

233,  238,  243 
Doughty,  Charles,  273 
Dreyfus  Case,  289,  304,  327-329 
Drinkshops,  49,  120,   121 
Driving   Tours,   70,    148,   234-237,   282, 

283 
Dufferin,   Marquess  of,  30,  51,  59,  80, 

112,  1/7 

Duran,  Carolus,  79 

Edward  VII,  King,  see  Wales 

Egerton,  Secretary,  58,  59,  98 

Egypt,  brigandage  in,  43 ;  evacuation  of, 
49,  58,  60,  74,  88,  94,  108,  109,  115, 
116,  117,  120,  185,  214,  215,  218,  245, 
350,  406;  increase  of  ram  in,  133; 
the  law  in,  247 ;  military  occupation 
of,  43,  44,  107;  nationalism,  u,  84, 
138,  165,  350;  political  situation  in, 
II,  12,  43;  saved  from  absorption, 
25.  See  also  Abbas,  Cromer,  Tewfik, 
Abdu  Mohammed,  Desert  trips, 
Sheykh  Obeyd 

El  Bekri,  Sheykh  of  Cairo,  87,  89,  90, 
96,  123,  124,  285 

Ellis,  The  Honble.  Sir  Arthur,  Eq- 
uerry to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  98,  141 

Emin  Pasha,  102 

Empire,  see  British  Empire 

English  language,  396 

Esterhazy,  M.,  289 

"Esther,"  81,  83 

Estournelles,  M.  Constant  d',  109,  no, 
308 

Eugenie,  Empress,  176,  392,  393,  394, 
395,  401,  405 

Eversley,  Lord,  311 

European  War,  50 


Index 


415 


Fashoda,  287,  298,  299,  302,  303,  304, 

305,  306,  369 
Faure,  President,  313 
Fayoum,  The,  249 
Fellahin,  The,  45,  46,  48,  194,  408 
Fen  wick,   Pasha,  87,  165 
Ferdinand,  Prince,  179 
Ferrieres,    M.,   78 
Filipinos,  The,  331,  376 
"Fire  and  Sword  in  the  Soudan"  242 
Fogliano,  28 
Ford,   Rt.   Honble.   Sir   Clare,   British 

Ambassador    at    Constantinople,    99, 

103,  113 
France,  the  Entente  with,  59,  309,  see 

Fashoda 

Franco- Prussian  War,  382,  387-404 
Frankfort,  382 

Freemantle,  Sir  Arthur,  163,  164 
Froissart's  Chronicles,  285 
"Frontier  incident,  The,"  118,  125-130, 

134,  136 

Gabez,  a  Palm  Oasis,  161 

Gallifet,  Gen.,  328,  329,  399 

Galloway,  Countess  of,  no,  172,  215 

Game  laws,  French,  77 

Garah,  273 

German  Kings,  rage  for,  387 

Germany,  404;  intrigues  of,  238 

Gifford,  173 

Ghaleb,  Osman  Bey,  Egyptian  Nation- 
alist, 113,  119,  125-127 

Gill,  T.  P.,  M.  P.,  218,  227 

Gladstone,  Rt.  Honble.  W.  E.,  M.  P., 
52,  57,  61,  65,  68,  73,  74,  89,  107,  108, 
116,  117,  119,  122,  133,  239,  290,  294, 
406,  408 

Glen,  The,  56,  57 

Gordon,  General  C.  G.,  of  Khartoum, 
32,  130,  242,  296 

Gordon,  Colonel  Bill,  nephew  to  Gen- 
eral Gordon,  129,  130,  225,  288,  313, 
317,  320,  330 

Gorst,  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Eldon,  88, 
165,  193,  209,  224,  276,  287 

Gosse,  Edmund,  145 

Government,  National,  407 

Grammont,  393,  397 

Greece,  7-10;  War  with  Turkey,  276, 
278,  284,  286 

Greenwood,  279 

Gregory,  Lady,  65,  125,  290,  291 

Grey,  Rt.  Honble.  Sir  Edward  Bart., 
afterwards  Lord  Grey  of  Falloden, 
81,  134.  313 

Gros  Bois,  26,  175,  302,  360,  370 


Halevy,  Ludovic,  175,  176 
Halim,  Prince,  16,  61,  106 
Hamilton,  Sir  Edward,  permanent  of- 
ficial of  the  Treasury,  53,  108,  109 
Hampden,  Harry  Brand,  Lord,  321,  326 

329,  331,  333,  369,  370 
Hanotaux,  M.,  303,  304 
Harcourt,  Sir  William,  M.  P.,  60,  61, 

65,  81,  83,  108,  109,  115,  140,  170,  307, 

308,  310,  312,  323,  324 
Hardinge,   Rt.  Honble.  Sir  Arthur  of 

the  Diplomatic  Service,  88 
Harrison,  Frederic,  65,  66,  117,  143,  233, 

327,  329 

Hassan  Abu  Tawil,  Sheykh,  363,  376 
Hassan  Sherei,  49 
Hawarden,  73 
HJelene,    Princess  of  France,  Duchess 

of  Aosta,  56,  in,  120,  133,  170,  365 
Henley,  W.  E.,  poet,  108,  109,  232,  278, 

200 
Herbert.    The   Honble.    Auberon,    235, 

236,  282 

Holywell,  St.  Winifrid's  Well  in  Flint- 
shire, 292,  293,  300,  301 
Home   Rule,   Irish,  41,  51,  65,  66,  67, 

in 
Horses,  15,  103,  104,  146,  156,  177,  179, 

182,  210,  213,  245,  332,  370,  371 
Hoyos,  Count  and  Countess  George,  18, 

75 

Hiibner,  M.  de,  394 
Huxley,  Professor,  146,  332 
Hyndman,  H.  M.,  278,  279 

Imperialism,  310 
India,  80,  138,  285,  347 
International  Exhibition,  370 
Ireland,  25,  27,  40,  51,  65,  290,  348,  349, 

375 ;  see  Home  Rule 
Irving,  Henry,  280 
Italy,  Abyssinian  expedition,  207,  217; 

Colonial   policy,   230;    King  of,   230, 

370 ;  treaty  with,  53 

Jameson,   Dr.,    115,  211,   214,  218,  226, 

233,  281.  284 

Jameson  Raid.  The.  211,  280,  283,  334 
Japan,  war  with  China.  151,  152 
Jemal-ed-Din,    Afghani.    Seyyid,    relig- 
ious leader  of  Reform  at  Constanti- 
nople, loo,  101,  105,  206 
Jews  in  Tunis,  160 

Johore.  Sultan  of.  95,  96.  09,  100,  105 
Jowdat,    Ismail    Bey,    Director    of    the 
Cairo    police    under    the    Nationalist 
Government,  86 


4i6 


Index 


Jubilee  Day,  279 
Jusserand,  M.,  175 

Kamel,  Mustafa  Pasha,  Egyptian  Na- 
tional Leader,  95,  138 

Kasr-el-Jibali,  250 

Keat's  Memorial  Meeting,  145 

Kelmscott  Manor,  23,  24,  72 ;  Press,  55, 
67 

Kerouan,  157,  158 

Khartoum,  287,  310 

Khedive,  see  Abbas  and  Tewfik 

Kiamil  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier,  n,  188, 
306 

Kiev,  180 

Kimberley,  350 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  216,  333,  373 

Kitchener  General  Lord,  95,  118,   126, 

131 1    I34-I37.    195.    205,    206,    210,    222, 

223,  225,  243,  311,  313,  317,  319-324. 

330,  341,  342,  344,  349,  366,  373,  375, 
376 

Knowles,  James,  Editor  of  the  "Nine- 
teenth Century."  122,  306,  307 

Kruger,  President,  212,  325,  326,  331, 
332,  339,  372 

Labouchere,  Rt.  Honble.  Henry,  M.  P., 
52,  81,  93,  108,  in,  us*  117,  231, 
308 

Lacretelle,  M.,  French  artist,  3,  4 

Ladysmith,  333,  346,  351 

Lascelles,  Rt.  Honble.  Sir  Frank,  Am- 
bassador at  Berlin,  134,  145,  220,  231, 
389,  392 

Laureateship,  The  Poet,  82,  114,  144, 
212,  279 

Lauzun's  Memoirs,  178 

Lawless,  Miss,  173 

Lawson,  Sir  Wilfred  Bart.,  M.  P.,  52, 
319,  322,  345,  369 

Leboeuf,  General,  393,  397 

Leclerc,  General,  155 

Lefevre,  George,  311 

Legislative  Council,  Cairo,  122,  123, 
124 

Leo  X,  Pope,  17,  27 

Lesseps,  M.  de,  214 

Lisbon,  384 

Literature,  396 

Little  Oasis,  256 

Loch  Kinnaird,  55 

Longleat  Park,  236 

Lord  Mayor  of  London,  177 

Loti,  Pierre,  314 

Luxor,  194 

Lytton,  Robert  Earl  of,  22,  26,  40,  58, 
59,  403 


Lytton,  Lady,  171,  227,  366 

Mafeking,  relief  of,  366,  367 
Magician,  Moorish,  70,  71 
Magnusson,  77 
Mahdi,  The,  13,  195,  196,  242,  313,  317, 

320,  323,  324,  330  344 
Maher  Pasha  136 

Malet,  Rt.  Honble.  Sir  Edward,  Am- 
bassador at  Berlin,  144,  282,  384 
Malta,  163,  164,  165 
Mangasheh,  King,  223 
Manning,  Cardinal,  54,  75,  234,  235 
Marchand,  General,  287,  305,  306 
Margot  see  Asquith 
Matabele  War,  114-117,  224,  237 
Maxse,  Admiral,  314,  326 
Maxse,  Miss  Violet,  144 
Memmon,  Statue  of,  195 
Menelik,  King,  217,  223 
Meredith,  George,  83,  143,  340 
Metternich,  398 
Metz,  400 
Meynell,  Wilfrid,  75,  76,  147,  148,  298, 

368 

Meynell,  Dr.  Charles,  337 
Michel,  Louise,  5,  6 
Middleton,  John  Henry,  70,  72,  231 
Milan,  King  of  Servia,  19 
Militarism,  289,  310,  317 
Milner,   Sir  Alfred,  afterwards   Lord, 

44,  61,  85,  140,  325,  326,  328,  334,  351 
Minjowar,   Sheykh,  of  Kasr  el  Jibali, 

249-252,  254 
Minshatti  Bey,  195,  196 
Minshawi  Pasha,  Egyptian  Nationalist, 

16,  63 

Mirage  in  Desert,  259 
Mivart,  Professor  D.  D.,  345,  347,  368 
Modernism,  76,  83 

Moehli,  Ibrahim  Bey,  12,  87,  99,  101,  105 
Moehli,  Mohammed,  12,  30,  48,  87,  93, 

95,  96,  loo,  105,  119,  125 
Morley,    Rt.    Honble.    John,    M.    P., 

afterwards  Lord   Morley  of  Black- 
burn, 61,  66,  116,  117,  170,  220,  229, 

245,  308,  313,  314,  321 
Morocco,  59 
Morris,  William,  23,  24,  25,  52,  55,  57, 

66,  67,  72,  77,  82,  in,  116,  149,  173, 

212,  227-232,  238,  240,  294,  308,  315 
Mukhtar    Pasha    Ghazi,    the    Sultan's 

representative  at  Cairo,  87,  96-98,  119, 

131,  167 
Munir  Pasha,  in  the  Sultan's  service, 

99,  1 02 
Mustafa  Fehmi  Pasha,  Prime  Minister 

at  Cairo,  87,  92,   138,  204,  219,  220, 

222,  223 


Index 


417 


Napoleon  III,  Emperor  of  the  French, 

81,  176,  31 },  392-397,  401 
Nassar,    Shahir    Ibn,    Sheykh    of    the 

Harb  Bedouins  of  Hejaz,  32,  33 
National    Movement,    (Egyptian),    II, 

84,   135,   138,   165,  350;    (Irish),  25, 

348 

Natural  history,  200 
Nauplia,  10 

Nazli,  Princess,  10,  246 
Negroes  seized  in  Egypt,  224,  225,  243, 

244;  "free  labour,"  367 
Nejd,  206,  207,  286 
Nelidoff,  M.,  de,  Russian  Ambassador 

at  Constantinople,  99,  184,  192 
Newbuildings,  170,  227,  278,  293,  306, 

371 

New  Forest,  234,  307 

Newman,  Cardinal,  338 

"New  Pilgrimage,  A,"  22 

"New  Review,"  169,  232,  278,  290 

"News    from   Nowhere,"   52 

Nietzsche,  346,  347 

Nile,  Journey  to  upper,  193-204;  val- 
ley, 248 

Noel,  Edward  of  Eubaea,  9 

Noel,  Frank  of  Eubaea,  8,  n,  14 

Ndlde,  Baron  de,  Russian  traveller  in 
Arabia,  140,  143 

Norman,  Sir  Henry,  117 

Note,  The  Joint,  46 

Nubar  Pasha,  Prime  Minister  at  Cairo, 
31,  45,  89,  125,  135-137,  167,  204,  3U 

O'Connor,  T.  P.,  M.  P.,  25,  1 14 

Okeilah,    157-159 

Oldhouse,  235 

Omdurman,  Battle  of,  296,  317,  320,  322 

Orleans,  due  d',  120,  133 

O'Shea,  50,  218 

Osman  Digna,  Mahdist  Leader,  13,  17, 

29,  348 

Osman  Pasha,  Prince,  10,  208,  288 
Ouida,  364,  365 
Oxford,  325 

Palgrave,  Francis,  173 

Palgrave,  Giffard,  173 

Panislamic   ideas,  06 

Paris,  2,  5,  6,  25,  40,  57,  58,   177,  302, 

370,  381,  383-402 
Parnell,  Charles  Stuart,  18,  41,  50,  51, 

54,  218,  219 
Party,       Irjsh       Parliamentary,      348; 

Liberal,  52 
Pasteur,  203,  204 

Paul,  Kegan,  Memoirs  of,  337,  367 
Peace  Congress,  60;  Peace  and  war,  21 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  170 
Pembroke,  George  Earl  of,  41,  169 


"Petticoat,  The,"  76 

Philae,  197,  198 

Pilgrims,  352,  356,  357,  360-363 

Poland,  cause  of,  lost,  183 

Politics,  25 ;  American,  107 ;  Bulgarian, 

179;    Dalmatian,    18;    Egyptian,    II, 

12,  43;  Greek,  8;   Irish,  27;   Polish, 

183;  Vatican,  27 
Polygamy,   1 1 
Poore,  Major,  151 
Potocke,  Count  and  Countess  Joseph, 

177,  178,  180,  280 
Powell,  York,  316,  325 
Pretoria,  368 
Prim,  General,  386,  387 
Purcell,  234,  235 

Rashid,     Mohammed     Ibn,     Emir     of 

Nejd,  13,  16,  114,  206,  277,  286 
Redmond,  John,  M.   P.,   in,  303,  349 
"Resurrection,"  353 
Revelstoke,  54 
Reverseaux,   M.,   de,   French    Minister 

at  Cairo,  86,  124,   125,   129,  138,  144 
Rhodes,   Cecil,  82,    117,  218,   222,  224, 

225,  226,  233,  237,  243,  244,  278,  281, 

292,  334,  350,  351 
Riaz  Pasha,  Prime  Minister  in  Egypt, 

31,  33,  35,  43,  45,  49,  52,  86,  87,  88, 

91,  92,  04,  97,  119,  121,  122,  135,  136, 

166,  210 

Ripon,  Marquess  of,  288 
Rist,  Dr.  Edward,  361,  362 
Robbers,  Attack  by,  46-48 
Roberts,  Lord,  341,  342,  350,  368 
Rome,  27,  50.  60 
Rosebery,  The  Earl  of.  6r,  66,  72,  74, 

81-83,  ibi,  109,  112,  116,  133-135,  138, 

140,  169.  170,   191,  215,  241,  308,  372 
Rossetti,    Dante    Gabriel,    72,    149,   315 
Rothschild,  Mme.,  Alphonse,  78,  176 
Rothschilds,  the,  in  Egypt,  278,  279 
Rouen,  400 

Rotimelia,  Great  Plain  of  Eastern,  106 
Rowton,  Lord,  312,  327 
Rudolph,  Crown  Prince  of  Austria,  19 
Ruffer,  Dr.,  195,  203,  204 
Rumpenheim,  chateau  of,  382 
Ruskin,  John,  149 
Russell,  George  W.,  ("A.  E.,")  Irish 

poet,  2Qi 

Russell,  Odo,  404 
Russia,  Emperor  of,  132 

Saburtji,    Louis,    secretary    to    Sultan 

Abdul  Hamid.  102,  105 
Sackville,  Lionel,  Lord,  oo 
Said   Pasha,  215 
St.  Anthony,  Convent  of,  168 
St.  Pagan's,  282 


4i8 


Index 


St.  Louis,  shrine  of,  154 

St.  Winifred's  Well,  292,  293,  300,  301 

Saldanha,  384 

Salisbury  Cathedral,  236 

Salisbury,  Marquis,  27,  43,  52,  53.  5**, 

59,  61,  63,  68,  72,  109,  173,  185,  191, 

204,  210,  211,  214,  215,  218-222,  247, 

280,  290,  298,  303,  307,  309,  3",  313, 

327,  328,  406 
Sanderson.   Sir   Thomas,  head  of  the 

Foreign  Office,  afterwards  Lord,  327 
Sanguscko,  Prince  and  Princess,  Polish 

nobleman,  178-180 
Sanua,    James     (Abdu    Naddara)     in 

exile  at   Paris,  58,  305 
Sapieha,  Prince  John,  181-183 
Sargent,  J.  S.,  R.  A.,  314 
Sarras,  201,  202 
"Satan  Absolved"  297,  300,  307,  321, 

326,  329,  333,  334,  335,  34<>,  345,  346 
Savernake  Forest,  150 
Savona,  163,  165 
Sedan,  402 

Seglawi  (horse),  37-39 
Selamlik,  The,  102 

Senussia,  The,  251,  254,  272,  276,  363 
Sermoneta,  The  Duke  and  Duchess  of, 

28,  29,  218,  230 
Sfax,  160 

Shahir  ibn  Nassar,  32,  33 
Shaitan,  36 

Shakespeare's  house,  148 
Shaw,  Miss  Flora,  226 
Shehallion,  56 
Sherei  Hassan,  leader  of  the  Egyptian 

Fellah  Party,  48,  49 
Sheridan,  Brinsley,  76 
Sheykh  Obeyd,  11,  13,  3<>,  43,  4<>,  85, 

118,  137,  165,  193,  204,  217,  226,  243, 

275,  284,  338,  374 
Siam,  French  attacking,  112 
Siege  of  Paris,  The,  403 
Siseranne,  M.  de  la,  305 
Sittarah,  Lake  of,  260 
Siwah,   Journey  to,   244,   247,   266-273 
Slatin,  Sir  Rudolf  Pasha,  209,  216,  242 
Slavuta,  179,  1 80 
Slivnitza,  battle  of,  20 
Socialism,  5,  6 
Soudan,  The,  25,  198,  209,  227,  230,  231, 

287,  298,  311,  312,  313,  319,  321,  349; 

see  also  Dongola 

"Souls,"  The,  53,  83,  146,  308,  375 
South    Africa,    see    Transvaal;    Boer 

War 

Spain,  abdication  of  Queen,  386 
Spanish-American  War,  290,  295,  306 
Spencer,   Herbert,  297,   317,   318,  319, 

326,  333,  342,  410,  4" 


iStaal,  M.,  de,  Russian  Ambassador  to 

England,  67,  314 
"Stalky,"  373 

Stallion,  purchase  of  a,  37-39 
Stambuloff,  179 
Stanley  Expedition,  The,  29 
"Stealing  of  the  Mare,"  65,  68 
Stonehenge,  151 
Stonor,  Monseignor,  27,  28,  50 
Stratford-on-Avon,  pilgrimage,  to,  148, 

228 

Strickland,  Count,  163,  164,  165 
Suez  Canal,  118 
Sus,  159 

Sutton  Place,  329 
Swinburne,   Algernon  Charles,  55,  82, 

114,  212,  229,  333 
Symonds,  John  Addington,  72 

Tennant,  Lady,  57 
Tennyson,  Alfred  Lord,  77,  229 
"Tercentenary  Sonnet,  A,"  149 
Tewfik,  Khedive,  12,  13,  17,  31,  43,  49, 

62,  63 
Thompson,  Francis,  poet,  147,  148,  297, 

208 
Tichborne,  Sir  Roger,  "the  Claimant," 

292 
Tigrane   Pasha,   Armenian  Under-sec  - 

retary.  for  Foreign  Affairs  at  Cairo, 

35,  87,  91,  92,  97,  119,  120,  124,  125, 

128,  129,  165,  210,  291 
Timbuctoo,  French  occupation  of,   128 
Tolstoy,  314.  346,  353 
"Tomorrow,"  A  Woman's  Journal  for 

Men,  83 
Tonkin,  51 

Toski,  battlefield,  199,  200 
Tourgueneff,  373 
Towfik,  Dr.  Mohammed,  3,  108 
Transvaal,  The,  211,  214,  218,  222,  226, 

232,  238,  244,  278,  280,  281,  323,  325- 

329,  335,  372,  375 
Tree,  Beerbohm,  332 
Tricoupi,     M.,     Prime     Minister     in 

Greece,  8,  9 
Tripoli,  162 

Tunis,  153,  154,  156,  160 
Turin,  365 
Turkey,  Rosebery  willing  to  partition, 

ioi ;  see  Abdul  Hamid ;  Greece,  War 

with 

Turr,  Mme.,  8 
Tyrrel,  Father,  367,  368 

Uganda,  77,  81 
Ukraine,  capital  of  the,  181 
United    States    of    America,    107,   210, 
290,   295,  306,   331,   375;   see   Span- 
ish-American War 


Index 


419 


Urquhart,  151 

Usedom,  Count  d',  Prussian  Ambass- 
ador at  Frankfort,  afterwards  in 
Italy,  8,  381,  389 

Vambery,  Professor,  189,  190 

Vatican,  The,  27 

Vaughan,  Cardinal,  75,  368 

Vaux,  le  Vicomte,  Chateau  of,  78,  79 

"Veiled   Protectorate,  The,"  84,  85 

Venezuela,    quarrel    between    England 

and  U.  S.,  about,  210 
Victoria,   Queen,   16,  43,  81,   114,   171, 

212,  227,  281,  304,  313,  321,  329,  330, 

335,  350,  366,  368 
Villiers,  Charles,  287,  385 
Vi'lliers,  Frank,  74 
Vincennnes,  Horse  Show  at,  370 
Vincent,  Rt.  Honble.  Sir* Edgar,  M.  P., 

88,  101,  105,  119 

Wagram,  Prince  and  Princess,  22,  26, 

55,  77,  175,  289,  302,  371 
Wales,    Prince    of,    afterwards    King 

Edward  VII,  141,  142 
Walsh,  Dr.,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  51 
War,      see      Boer,      Franco-Prussian, 

Japan,   Matabele,   Spanish-American, 

Turco-Greek 

Wats9n,  William,  318,  410 
'Watts,   George   Frederick,   R.    A.,  33, 

55,  70,  315,  3i6,  319,  337 
Watts-Dunton,  Theodore,  55,  82,  373 
Webb,  Philip,  architect,  368 
Wells  Cathedral,  237 
Whitehead,  Mr.,  18 


White  Horse  Hill,  149 

Wiart,  Carton  de,  245,  247 

Wilberforce,  Reginald,  234 

Wilde,  Oscar,  42,  58,  66,  145,  146,  169, 

375 
Wilhelm  I,  German  Emperor,  388,  389, 

398 
Wilhelm  II,  German  Emperor,  27-29, 

54,  59,   169,  212,  220,  230,  305,  306, 

322,  335,  343,  375 

Wilson,  Sir  Charles  Rivers,  52,  135 
Wingate,    General    Sir   Reginald,   209, 

225,  242,  349 
Wyndham,  George,  M.  P.,  Irish  Chief 

Secretary,  22,  42,  53,  67,  68,  108,  100, 

140,  143,  145,  169,  172,  226,  228,  231, 

232,  244,  278,  290,  299,  302,  306,  307, 

308,  314,  321,  322,  332,  336,  348,  366, 

372,  375 

Wyndham,  Madeline,  294,  315 
Wyndham,  Percy,  294,  343 

Yeats,  W.  B.,  291,  292 
Yellow  Terror,  369 
Yildiz,  Palace,  99,  104 
Yusuf,   Sheykh   AH,   Cairo  journalist, 
132,  246 

Zaghoul,  Saad  Effendi,  afterwards 
Pasha,  member  of  the  Egyptian  Fel- 
lah Party,  afterwards  minister,  48 

Zanzibar,  238 

Zebehr,  Pasha,  16,  17,  137 

Zeyd,  Bedouin  from  Nejd  in  the 
Author's  service,  36-39 

Zola,  fimile,  289 


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